Based on a new study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, 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 achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
