Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, 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 achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city 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 highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need 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, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
