According to a latest survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet 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 shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre 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 owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained 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 certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey found.
