According to a latest study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal 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 need to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
