Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority 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 taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers 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 addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.
