Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges 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 extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
