Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
