According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning 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 selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Cases of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Funding Gaps
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.