Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises 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 certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
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 England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation 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 reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
