According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
