Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
