Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal 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 escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting 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 service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, 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, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn 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 policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
