Based on a new study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed 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 innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area 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 extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials 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 need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
