England’s town halls are being “forced to the pawnshop” in an unsustainable fire sale of assets aimed at temporarily staving off bankruptcy, councils and experts have warned.
Local authorities are preparing to sell off hundreds of millions of pounds' worth of land and buildings as a long-term funding squeeze shows no sign of being alleviated by the chancellor’s Budget on March 6.
At least 10 councils, including Middlesbrough, Stoke-on-Trent, Somerset, Southampton and Bradford, have applied to the government for “exceptional financial support” to balance this year’s books.
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