🔗 Share this article

According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained 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 require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged 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 IMD measures,” noted the report.

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.