According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, 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 generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.
