Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale 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.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead 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 some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist 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 very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived 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 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
