🔗 Share this article

According to a recent study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.