🔗 Share this article

Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.