Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
