Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England 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 in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money 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 focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
