According to a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed 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 adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
