Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next April 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 asset sales 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 innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns 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 deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
