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Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities 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.

Local governments have previously faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Increases 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 local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.