Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
