Based on a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels 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, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
