According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales 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 creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring 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 cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area 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 difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
