Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
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 short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
