🔗 Share this article

Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Trends and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.