According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
