According to a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent 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.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties 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 Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network 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 setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
