According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported 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 disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead 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 adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.