According to a recent study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated 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 over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
