Based on a latest survey of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
