According to a recent study of municipal councils, 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 Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale 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 commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases 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 some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
