Based on a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales 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 distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead 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 creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
