According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are 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 Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” 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 worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
