Based on a new survey of local authorities, 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.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals 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 creative strategies but some of these 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 drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils 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 put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
