According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue 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
Research of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns 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 deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions 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 social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
