According to a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase 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
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched 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 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
