Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals 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 (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester 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 Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
