According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent 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 councils will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated 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 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
