According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed 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 distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing 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 manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
