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According to a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead 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 some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.

The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 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 the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.