🔗 Share this article

According to a recent poll of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past come under fire for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

Research of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.