Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
