Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue 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 the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises 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 require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
