According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding 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, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to 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 extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
