Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
