Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, 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 past 12 months, the survey revealed.
