Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
