According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
