According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
