According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
