Based on a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
