According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
