According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.
