Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for 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 fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
