According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, 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, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
