🔗 Share this article

According to a new study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority 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 temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Trends and Forecasts

Research of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said 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 scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.