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Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils 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 land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.

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

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.