According to a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to 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 Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among 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 highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
