Based on a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned 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 Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, 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 outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the latest deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
