Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities 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 disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although 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 data underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
