According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “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 over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils 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.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in 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 report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
