According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains 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 Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in 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 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
