According to a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures 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 very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
