According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue 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 raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing 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 struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
