Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures 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 Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities 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 addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
