Based on a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton 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, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
