According to a recent survey 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 stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged 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 study.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.