According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures 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 extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
