According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas 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 major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
