According to a recent study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
