According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains
This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
