According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority 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 owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
