According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals 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 require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
