According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
