Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases 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 require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
