Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, 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 representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal 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 Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals 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 some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
