Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal 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 the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
