According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Planned Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to 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.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking 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 residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.
