According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals
One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
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 over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
National Trends and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.
“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of councils have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
