Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
