According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive 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 cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures 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 council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
