Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities 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 prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises 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 need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
