According to a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
