🔗 Share this article

According to a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, 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 attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority said it will press ahead 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 taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.