Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, 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 temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
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 planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
