Based on a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales 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 some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
