Based on a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
