According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
