Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said 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 taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
