According to a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
