According to a new poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will proceed 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 innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to 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.”
National Trends and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said 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 residents.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.
