According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained 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 innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.
