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Based on a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and land to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds 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 Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of local authorities 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 address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.

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

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.