According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address 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, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains 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 Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.