Based on a recent survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to stabilize finances.
Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing 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 a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases 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 deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.
A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.
- “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”
A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.
