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Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax 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 authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.