Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 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 additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” 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,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
