Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
