According to a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, 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 for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
