According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing 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 innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls 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 policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.