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According to a recent study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Planned Sales

One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding 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 achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures 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 this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” said the study.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.