Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted 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 (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
