Based on a latest survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, 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 report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
