Over the last decade, several UK cities and boroughs have faced financial collapse, illustrating the slow erosion of economic stability that compounds societal anxiety and softens the ground for state coercion. Birmingham City Council declared bankruptcy in September 2023 with a £760 million deficit due to unpaid equal pay claims and failed investments. Thurrock Borough Council issued a Section 114 notice in December 2022 after £655 million losses in risky solar projects. Woking Borough Council went bankrupt in June 2023, burdened by £2.4 billion in commercial loans. Nottingham City Council followed in November 2023 with a £1.1 billion deficit from failed property investments. Earlier, Croydon Borough Council collapsed in November 2020 under £1.5 billion of debt, and Slough Borough Council declared bankruptcy in July 2021 due to a £500 million deficit from commercial misadventures. These crises were fueled by austerity measures reducing government funding, excessive borrowing, risky commercial ventures, and rising demand for social services. The cascading effect—municipal insolvency, reduced public services, and economic precarity—creates a climate of fear and helplessness, which can be leveraged by the state through soft terror: amplified policing, enforcement of trivial laws, and the psychological weight of looming financial collapse, all of which reinforce compliance and suppress dissent.