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Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales

One local authority in Kent 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 £20m over five years.

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

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple 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 Funding Shortfalls

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

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

“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth 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.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.