According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, 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 raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
