Based on a recent study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal 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 authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices 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 social care provision in the last year, the study found.
