According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- 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.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases 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 some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched 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 grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
