According to a latest study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
