Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
