Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising 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 contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead 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 innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
