According to a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “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 central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
