Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial 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 raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said 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 short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
