More than 4,000 public buildings and spaces in England are being sold off every year, with more than 7,000 others at risk over the next five years, a charity has said.
Locality says the majority of the sites being offloaded by local authorities are sold to private developers for the highest price, forever lost to communities around them.
The charity wants the government to create a £200m-a-year community ownership fund for the next five years to help preserve the buildings and spaces for the use of local people.
Tony Armstrong, its chief executive, said: “This is a sell-off on a massive scale. We know that many of the buildings being lost have valuable community uses.
“Everyone of us can think of a local public building or outside space we love and use, from libraries to lidos and town halls to youth centres. They are owned by the public and they’re being sold off for short-term gain to fill holes in council budgets.
“Many hundreds of local community groups are stepping up and fighting for community ownership. But they urgently need support and help with startup costs if they are to compete with the commercial developers.”
Five grand buildings lost and five saved
Lost: Liverpool Municipal Buildings
Faced with the need to make savings of £90m over the next three years, Liverpool city council has decided to sell the Grade II*-listed Municipal Buildings, having deemed the 150-year-old structure “surplus to requirements”. One bidder wants to turn it into a five-star hotel.
Lost: Ealing town hall, west London
The council has approved a deal with developer Mastcraft to turn the Grade II-listed building into a 140-bed boutique hotel. The deal is for a 245-year lease but the council will retain the east wing for civic use.
Lost: Hornsey town hall, Haringey, north London
A plan for the Far East Consortium to redevelop the 1935 Grade II*-listed building, reputed to be the venue where in 1971 Queen played their first concert, was approved in October. Despite a petition signed by nearly 7,000 people, the £27m sale is due to be confirmed next month.
Lost: Haggerston Baths, Hackney, east London
The Victorian baths, dating from 1904, have been sold to private-equity firm Castleforge Partners, which says the building will house an art gallery, offices, affordable workspaces, pop-ups, shops, cafés, a health centre and food stalls.
Lost: Hulme Hippodrome, Manchester
The historic Grade II-listed former theatre, where Laurel and Hardy, Nina Simone and George Formby performed, was sold at auction for £325,000 last year after an attempt by the Friends of Hulme Hippodrome to get it listed as an asset of community value was rejected by the council.
Saved: The Carlile Institute, Meltham, near Huddersfield
Built in 1891, the Victorian building fell into disrepair and was empty. A group of residents came together to save the institute in 2014 when Kirklees council was selling off publicly owned buildings. It now includes a library, a fully accessible post office, an office for Meltham town council, offices for local firms and start-ups and a school of dance, as well as three large spaces used by community groups.
Saved: Moseley Road Baths, Balsall Heath, Birmingham
The oldest Grade II-listed baths still open for public swimming in the UK were set to close in July 2017 but the Edwardian building has remained open as a communit-run venue.
Saved: Shotley Pier, Shotley Gate, Suffolk
The 650-foot Victorian pier used to ferry passengers to the opposite bay was left unused and in disrepair for many years. Thanks to local people buying shares for £25 each, £62,000 was raised and the pier was saved in February this year.
Saved: Horton Chapel Project, Epsom, Surrey
Horton Chapel, a Grade II-listed Edwardian chapel built as part of the then new Horton Asylum and designed to accommodate hundreds of patients and staff, stood vacant for many years. In 2016, the Horton Chapel Arts and Heritage Society came together to save it as a not-for-profit art centre.
Saved: Byrne Avenue Baths, Wirral, Merseyside
The 1930s Grade II-listed swimming pool complex was closed by the council in 2009 but it has since agreed to give community ownership to a group of local residents, the Byrne Avenue Trust.
The Great British Sell Off report is published on Tuesday and is based on freedom of information requests sent to all 353 local authorities in England. Locality received 55 responses on the number of buildings and spaces sold between the financial years 2012-13 and 2016-17, as well as 127 replies about sites identified as surplus over the next five years, extrapolating the results to obtain national totals.
Only two fifths of councils (based on 233 responses) said they had a strategy to support community ownership, known as a community asset transfer policy.
Locality wants all councils to have one of these policies, giving community groups first right of refusal to buy public buildings and for them to have a year, rather than six months, to draw up a proposal.
In Hastings residents were left furious on Saturday after it was confirmed the town’s pier had been sold to a businessman for a fraction of what it cost to rebuild. Sheikh Abid Gulzar reportedly paid £50,000, while the Friends of Hastings Pier group had raised £477,000 of its £500,000 target to buy it.
In West Yorkshire, residents are trying to save the former Dewsbury Museum, closed by the council in 2016 after 120 years owing to financial pressures. Jax Lovelock, who chairs the Dewsbury Park Mansion community hub, said the aim was for the building to be used for health and wellbeing services, as well as space for startups and community events.
“Over the last 10 to 15 years, our town as well as towns all over the country have had their civic hearts stripped out of them,” she said. “Communities will get off their backsides and do things for themselves but they need that guidance and support to be able to do that.”
Locality said austerity was to blame for the sell-off, a view shared by the Local Government Association.
Richard Watts, who chairs the LGA’s resources board, said: “Local councillors, elected by local people, understand the deep connection communities have with their public spaces and buildings. If we are to be able to maintain them and fund frontline services, the government must address our funding shortfall of over £5bn a year by 2020 as soon as possible.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said councils had £90.7bn to spend on local services over the next two years, which they were responsible for spending wisely.
He added: “All local authorities must properly consider the risks and opportunities before making commercial decisions.
“We are working with local government to develop a funding system for the future based on the needs of different areas.”
