Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase 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 extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
