Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
