According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
