According to a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces 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 reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
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 adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
