Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
