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Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Broader Financial Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

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

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.

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

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.