🔗 Share this article

Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.

Increasing Financial Pressures 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 escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.