Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained 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 temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
