According to a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed 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 adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults 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 grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
