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Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported 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.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales

One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the latest IMD measures,” noted the report.

“While only one key city is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.