According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures 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.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
