According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
