According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist 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 very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “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.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
