Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council 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 adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “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 study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
