According to a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales 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 innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.
