Based on a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% 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 land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey found.
