Based on a new poll of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures 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.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“While only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
