Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, 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 youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said 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 the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
