Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising 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 budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises 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 some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains 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 Forecasts
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
