Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “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 increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
