Based on a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (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 place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
