According to a new study of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “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 fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales 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 adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding 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 Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.
