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According to a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.