According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, 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 second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases 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,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist 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 regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members 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,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
