Based on a latest survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England 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.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
