Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases 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 require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, 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 recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
