Based on a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting 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 manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial 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 increase council taxes 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 property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
