Based on a recent study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off 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 Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
