Based on a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead 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 adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
