According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey found.
