🔗 Share this article

According to a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist 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 Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.