Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing 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 struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
