Based on a new study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council 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 short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities recently further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
