According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said 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 certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
