According to a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
