Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties 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 Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults 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 struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
