According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted 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 (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds 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 next year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
