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According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, 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 stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover 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 raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the latest IMD measures,” noted the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data 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 explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study found.