Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in 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 challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
