Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
