According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
