According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
