Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures 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 Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
