Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed 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 creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue 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.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals 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 struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials 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.
“Lacking 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 councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
