Based on a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
