Based on a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.
Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
The group said that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Specific Examples of Proposed Sales
One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures
The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Forecasts
A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Deprivation and Financial Gaps
According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.
- “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
