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Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to support their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to manage growing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales 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 some of these take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

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

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several 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 top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services 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 study found.