According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
