Based on a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said 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 adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
