According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils 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.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
