Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains 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 Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
