Based on a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures 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 Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
