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 stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
