According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- 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 strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived 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,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
