Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion 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 using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
