According to a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.
“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
