According to a latest study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council 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 adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes 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 (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
