Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
