Based on a new survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
