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According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

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

The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester 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 also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

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

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

Research of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults 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 increased demand.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.

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

“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

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

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.