Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
