Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town 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 additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
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 councils will have to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
