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According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls

According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.