According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club 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 plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to 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.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions 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 study found.
