According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
