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According to a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating 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 shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England said 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 held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained 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 adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

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 Trends and Projections

A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults needing special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.