Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
