According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
