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According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.

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

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.