Based on a latest study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained 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 short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges 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 over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
