According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
