According to a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
