Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to 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.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
