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According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

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

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 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 Financial Shortfalls

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” said the study.

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.

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

“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.