According to a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
