🔗 Share this article

According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties 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 raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Trends and Forecasts

A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally 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 far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.