English Local Authorities Intend to Sell Off Community Hubs and Sports Centres to Balance Books

Based on a latest survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

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

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Trends and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

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

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

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities 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 local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.