According to a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures 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 extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders 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 funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said 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 communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
