According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities 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 open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
