Based on a new study of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Strains
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among 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 report.
“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.
“Without this, local authorities will persist 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.
