South Hams councillors have put on hold plans to become multi-million pound players in the national property game.

At the full council meeting at Follaton House on Thursday, the executive member for business development, strategy and development, Conservative Cllr Keith Wingate said: “After reflecting on comments that I’ve received from members, I’ve decided to defer the investment portfolio until we can better mitigate and manage the risk.

“We now have the opportunity – mixed bag, I know – to track the progress West Devon make with theirs [sparking laughter from fellow councillors] and we will bring it back when appropriate.

“Indeed my own research in the last few days has indicated that a softening in the market is of great concern. This council has lots of work to do on other fronts and this help to free up officers’ time.”

West Devon Borough Council this week approved plans to borrow £25m to invest in its own commercial property portfolio - a bill that South Hams’ taxpayers could end up paying, should the councils merge.

South Hams District Council originally planned to borrow up to £80m to build a money-spinning property portfolio – the equivalent of £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the South Hams, councillors were told.

The aim was to invest in retail, office, leisure, health, energy and industrial assets around the country and use the income to help keep the council’s finances in the black.

The council’s overview and scrutiny panel and its executive committee had both recommended this week’s full council to go ahead to set up a procurement process for the new property strategy and borrow the first £26.75m “tranche” of the £80m.

The recommendations were made despite warnings that the retail property market alone was notoriously fickle; other local authorities already going down the same road were creating a financial “bubble” in the property market; and there were question marks over whether the council was even allowed to borrow cash for this kind of investment purpose.