Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains 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 Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking 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 local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
