🔗 Share this article

According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.

The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.