According to a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
