Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported 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 land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase 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.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“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 a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
