According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials 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 demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.
