By Mathew Carr

March 17-24, 2025 — Labour is overseeing the effective theft of property from ordinary Brits, in part by using the unfair council tax system to push property onto the market to be bought by big business.

I’ve been following the money.

Labour was voted in July 2024. Tories starved councils of funding the previous 14 years.

British councils have sold $15 billion of property as US companies take over more of the UK. (Per Grok, IPPR, below)

Private equity, funds managers and hedge funds from the US and elsewhere have been buying….including the likes of BlackRock…see and Blackstone …see my later story, linked below.

It is shameful that Labour under Keir Starmer isn’t calling this out…..the real reasons why tax increases are needed.

Mirror newspaper:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/council-tax-hikes-clobber-households-34872444#google_vignette

Mirror’s left leaning readers are 94% worried:

Newham, one of the poorest, hikes by 8.99%….by ~19 points in three years ….hurting the least wealthy.

2025/2026 increase vs previous two years

Locals are taking to tents in some cases

One of the poshest suburbs Kensington & Chelsea protects the rich and increases “only” 4%…three-year gain of ~11 points.

Deep sigh

Grok:

“UK government financial support for councils hasn’t dropped in nominal terms recently, but the picture is more complicated when you dig into the details.

Over the last decade or so, especially since the austerity measures kicked in around 2010, central government grants to local councils were slashed significantly—some estimates put the real-terms reduction at around 40% by 2020.

This forced councils to lean harder on local revenue sources like council tax and business rates, which often don’t keep pace with rising costs or demand for services like social care.

In the last couple of years, though, the government has increased funding in cash terms. For instance, the 2024-25 local government finance settlement provided about £64.7 billion, a 7.5% nominal increase from the previous year, and the 2025-26 provisional settlement bumped that up to £69 billion, a 3.5% real-terms rise.

There’s also been targeted support, like the £600 million Recovery Grant in 2025-26 for the most deprived areas and exceptional financial support for councils in crisis—30 councils got borrowing permissions in 2025-26 to plug budget gaps.”

Also this …here is another way people are being forced to sell into the property market as big business buys:

Times

https://apple.news/AM3Iizj0nQj-cpJf0oY0g4w

The Rub, by Grok

“But here’s the rub: inflation, soaring demand for services (especially adult and children’s social care), and wage pressures—like the National Living Wage hikes—mean these (council tax) increases often don’t feel like “more” on the ground. Councils are still reporting funding gaps;

the Local Government Association estimated a £2.3 billion shortfall for 2025-26, rising to £3.9 billion the next year.

Plus, the system’s reliance on one-year settlements makes long-term planning a nightmare, and critics argue the distribution of funds doesn’t always match need—deprived areas often get hit hardest.

So, while raw funding numbers aren’t dropping, many councils are effectively worse off in terms of purchasing power and ability to deliver services. It’s less a story of outright cuts now and more one of insufficient growth to match the pressures. On the flip side, the government’s counterargument is they’re balancing a tight budget while trying to avoid piling more debt on future generations—whether that holds water depends on how much you think local services should be prioritized over other spending.

What do you think—should they be pumping more into councils or focusing elsewhere? “

MSG to mathew@carrzee.net

Property sales: Grok

Yes, there’s plenty of evidence that UK councils have sold off property over the past 15 years, often under financial pressure, though “forced” can be a tricky word—implying coercion rather than choice. The broader context is austerity, budget cuts, and rising service demands, which have pushed many councils into tough spots. Let’s break it down.

Since the 2010 coalition government kicked off austerity, central government grants to local authorities were cut dramatically—some figures suggest a real-terms reduction of about 40% by the early 2020s. This wasn’t a one-off; it’s been a steady squeeze. Councils rely on these grants for a big chunk of their budgets, alongside council tax and business rates. When grants shrank, they had to find cash elsewhere—either by raising local taxes, cutting services, or selling assets.

Data shows significant asset sales. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) estimated in 2023 that English councils sold around 75,000 public assets worth £15 billion since 2010.

That’s about 6,000 assets a year—think libraries, community centres, playing fields, even historic buildings. Birmingham City Council alone has been a big player here, offloading assets to cover budget holes, especially after its effective bankruptcy in 2023.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and HuffPost UK pegged the total at £9.1 billion from over 12,000 public spaces sold between 2014 and 2019, with Birmingham spending £49 million of that on redundancies and reforms.

Why sell? Post-2010 cuts left councils scrambling. The Local Government Association (LGA) has flagged how rising costs—think inflation, National Living Wage hikes, and surging demand for social care—outstrip funding increases.

Osborne

By 2016, rules changed under George Osborne, letting councils use asset sale proceeds to plug budget gaps, not just buy new assets. Freedom of Information requests revealed 64 councils spent £381 million from sales on cost-cutting, with £115 million going to redundancies. Northamptonshire, for instance, sold assets below market value multiple times, losing out on £6.3 million, often to developers.

It’s not just austerity. The Right to Buy scheme, turbocharged since 2012 with bigger discounts, has seen councils lose housing stock faster than they can replace it. Over 2 million homes sold since the 1980s, and replacements lag—government data shows in the North West, 4,350 homes sold in the last decade yielded just 1,400 new ones.

Some councils, like Norwich, even sold brand-new homes under Right to Buy, barely years after building them. This isn’t “forced” by law but by circumstance—sell or face unmanageable waiting lists and homelessness spikes.

On the flip side, councils aren’t literally forced at gunpoint. They have agency—some have tried community ownership models or fought to retain assets, as seen with Stretford Public Hall’s community campaign.

Vise

But the financial vise—cuts, rising costs, and policy shifts—means selling often feels like the only viable option. The LGA and others argue it’s a short-term fix with long-term pain: once assets are gone, they’re gone, and so is future revenue potential.

So, evidence? Yes—sales are well-documented, driven by budget pressures. Forced? Debatable in a legal sense, but the economic reality leaves many councils with little choice. It’s a slow bleed, not a sudden heist. What do you think—should councils hold onto assets regardless, or is this just pragmatism in tough times?

Notes

Grok: The UK Labour Party was most recently voted into power in the general election on July 4, 2024. Led by Keir Starmer, Labour won a landslide victory, securing 411 seats in the House of Commons (out of 650), ending 14 years of Conservative rule. Starmer became Prime Minister the next day, July 5, after meeting with King Charles III.

Labour has formed governments multiple times since its founding in 1900. Some notable past instances include:

• 1945: Clement Attlee led Labour to a landmark victory, establishing the NHS and the modern welfare state.
• 1964: Harold Wilson became Prime Minister after 13 years of Conservative rule.
• 1997: Tony Blair’s “New Labour” won a massive majority, beginning a 13-year stretch in power.

These investments highlight BlackRock’s strategic involvement in various segments of the UK housing market, including student accommodations, shared ownership homes, retirement living, and co-living spaces.

Cover Up?

However, due to the private nature of many real estate transactions and the scale of BlackRock’s global operations, a complete account of all their UK housing acquisitions over the past 20 years is not publicly available.

Cowardly Tories skip debate on rampant council-tax injustice in Britain, where poor pay 9%, rich 2% (1)

(Adds Times, earlier, context from searches)