According to a latest study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, 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 concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
