According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to 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 Trends and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation 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 reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
