Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, 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 regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
