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According to a new study 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.

Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

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

Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains

This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report 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 Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.