According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to 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 extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
