According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing 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 £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals 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 taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
