Based on a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities 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 restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation 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 cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
