Based on a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said 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 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
