Based on a latest study 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.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises 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 achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
