According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
