According to a new study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising 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 children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
