Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities 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 among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
