According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals 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 adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges 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 over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.