According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils 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 press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said 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 special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
