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According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Sales

One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.

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

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls

According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” said the report.

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation 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 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.