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According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending 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 land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies 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 property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.