According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal 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 local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included 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 business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research 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 local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, 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 Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
