According to a recent study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
