According to a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
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 temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
