According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
