Based on a latest survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
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 rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without 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 residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
