According to a new study of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding 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 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 continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
