Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank 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 nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
