Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
