Based on a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains 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 Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey revealed.
