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According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, 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 achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas 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 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

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