Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely 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 reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to 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.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds 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 white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.
