According to a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains 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.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue 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 reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.
