According to a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey found.
