Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK 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 previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to 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
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
