Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, 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.
