According to a recent study of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales
A coalition of councils for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.
Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research 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 raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said 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 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
