According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
