According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £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 sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to 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 Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
