Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group 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.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking 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.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
