According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face 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.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
