According to a new survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies 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 add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” 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 most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“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 councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
