According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet 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 argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals 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 innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
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.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
