According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 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 also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
