Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of councils 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 spring to cover 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 sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
