Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many 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 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study found.
