According to a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial 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 in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
