Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
