Based on a new survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
