Based on a new poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist 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 very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle 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.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services 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 study revealed.
