Based on a latest study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m 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 also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
