Based on a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land 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 authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures
This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases 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 deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the study found.
