According to a recent study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, 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 a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.