According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy 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 business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to address 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 sharp increases 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 financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “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 a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
