According to a latest 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 balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities 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 stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured 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.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” 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 the nation. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” 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 real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
