Based on a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, 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 attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face 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 Projections
Research of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.
