According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
