According to a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “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 over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
