Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
