According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
