According to a recent study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking 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 reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
