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According to a latest study of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority 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 better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.

“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.