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Based on a recent survey of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue 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 also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist 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 extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study found.