According to a recent study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking 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 using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority 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 taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected 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 the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
