Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils 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 asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.
