Based on a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
