According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt 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 rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve 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 local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
