🔗 Share this article

According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, 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 representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds 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 Wider Financial Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, 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 improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Trends and Projections

A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.