According to a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country 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 the nation. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
