According to a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Trends and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.
“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
