Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload 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
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to 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 Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
