According to a recent study of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club 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 Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “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 Projections
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
