According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales 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 require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
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 over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said 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 delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
