According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning 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 public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
