Based on a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club 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
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
