According to a new 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 Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
