According to a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
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 temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist 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 Projections
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
