Based on a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, 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 continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
