Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals 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 struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
