According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester 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 also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, 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 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
