Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated 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 central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
