According to a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
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 increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in 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 figures underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting 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 vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
