According to a new study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
Medway council explained 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 taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains 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 council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.
The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data 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 explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
