According to a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
