Based on a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase 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
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
