Based on a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales 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 some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, 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 has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
