According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices 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 survey revealed.
