Based on a recent study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
