Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, 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 better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to 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.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived 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,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
