According to a new study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face 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 extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.
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 increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
