According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex 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 owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council 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 taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” 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 councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
