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Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• 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.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” said the study.

“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.

“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.