Based on a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
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 raise local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales 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 adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
