According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Specific Cases of Planned Disposals
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Strains
This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for 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 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey found.
