According to a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
