According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities 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 public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services 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 past 12 months, the survey revealed.
