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According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist 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 Trends and Projections

Research of regional authorities this week also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several key cities members 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 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the survey revealed.