According to a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously 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 face insolvency.
The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales 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 creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
