According to a latest poll of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate £20m over five years.
- A local golf course and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.
Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures
The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.
The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.
He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”
Countrywide Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.
Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”
A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.
