Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising 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 contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition 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 (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, 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 improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
