Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
