SCOTLAND’S cash-strapped councils have sold off 1851 homes, schools, community centres, civic halls and other properties in recent years amid budget shortfalls, The Ferret can reveal.
Thirty-one local authorities disposed of the public assets between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2024, generating £243 million in revenue, according to data we obtained via freedom of information.
The sales include 113 former schools and nurseries, 69 community centres and civic halls, 17 care homes, 14 public toilets, and eight libraries.
Some councils shed large proportions of their total number of properties in recent years, which range from small plots of land to sprawling building complexes.
Shetland sold 14% of its assets, while Fife and North Lanarkshire, which withheld details about its sales, shed around a 10th. Others disposed of up to a fifth of their schools.
Some services which were run in the sold properties appear to have been stopped, with no replacements earmarked.
Trade unionists and campaigners said councils were “swinging the axe” at services which provide “vital support for everyone in our towns and cities”. They blamed the Scottish and UK governments for “cuts and austerity”.
Councils said cash shortages had led to difficult decisions about cutting some services, and called for a “fair budget settlement”.
A Labour MSP claimed the UK Government had delivered a “record” budget to Holyrood, which partly funds councils, while the Scottish Government also claimed to have made “record” payments to local authorities.
The disposal of properties by local authorities is a continuing trend. In 2021, we revealed that councils sold off 2663 assets between 2015 and 2019. They included 39 leisure centres, 23 public toilets, 17 libraries, seven swimming pools and four outdoor centres.
Ongoing cash constraints mean councils face further stark choices about the future of public assets.
In May, Scotland’s Accounts Commission said mounting pressures from inflation, increasing costs and demand had surpassed additional funding awarded to councils by the Scottish Government, meaning town halls face a budget shortfall of £647m in 2025-26 alone.
Additional costs they must shoulder include wage rises, higher employer National Insurance contributions in light of the UK Government’s increase, and growing service demands, including social care requirements due to Scotland’s ageing population.
Councils are aiming to raise more money via increases in Council Tax and charges for some services. But communities that face paying more have growing expectations for the services they use as a result, the commission added.
What did councils sell off?
FIFE Council sold eight community centres and civic halls – around a 10th of its total number of halls and centres, when compared to the local authority’s current asset register. Other councils sold a significant number of key assets.
Glasgow sold 23 former schools, Highland and Dundee disposed of 10 each, Aberdeenshire nine, and Shetland, Dumfries and Galloway and the Western Isles seven each. Argyll and Bute sold six schools, Fife and Edinburgh five each, while Perth and Kinross, as well as Fife, each sold four.
Proportionally, Shetland and the Western Isles sold nearly a fifth of their schools, Inverclyde sold a sixth, while Dundee sold a tenth, according to the councils’ current asset registers. Six more Western Isles schools are considered to be “surplus” to requirements.
Residents of Scotland’s rural areas and islands have previously warned that school closures could make local battles against depopulation unwinnable.
The Western Isles also sold four care homes – a quarter of its total listed care facilities – while Glasgow shed five. The sales contrast with warnings of a social care crisis in Scotland.
North Lanarkshire sold the most properties (207), followed by Fife (189), East Ayrshire (167), Highland (153) and Dundee (106). Public assets can vary in size and significance, however.
Edinburgh Council made the most from its sales (£48.8m), although property prices in the capital are significantly higher than elsewhere in Scotland. West Dunbartonshire banked £29m, Fife £26.6m, Highland £24m, Glasgow £20m, Aberdeen £17m, and Dundee £12.8m
East Renfrewshire and North Lanarkshire councils refused to provide any information about their sales, while East Dunbartonshire withheld sale prices. North Lanarkshire Council said the information would be too costly for it to collate, while the other two argued the data could be purchased via Registers of Scotland.
Councils defend their sales
LOCAL authorities stressed that some schools, halls and centres had been replaced. Those closed were due to declining usage, or deteriorating conditions, they added.
Fife Council stressed more than 100 of its 189 sales were parts of land and buildings, rather than entire properties, and encouraged communities to apply to take over the running of local hubs. Council assets were sometimes given to local groups, it said
Aberdeenshire Council added that in addition to providing crucial revenue, some sales allowed old buildings to “enjoy a new lease of life within our communities”. The community transfers of buildings did not always stop formerly council-run services from being discontinued, however.
In Aberdeenshire, schools were sold due to declining pupil rolls or ageing buildings which place “a significant financial burden on the council during challenging financial times,” said a spokesperson.
Highland Council highlighted that schools with dwindling pupil numbers were mothballed to give an opportunity for more children to move to the catchment area and avoid the risk of permanent closure.
Dumfries and Galloway Council argued its closures “had no measurable impact” on pupil population decline, which was “fairly consistent across all areas”. The local authority provides education “to all school-aged pupils”, it added.
In Dundee, a new £100m community campus, which will feature the “state-of-the-art Greenfield Academy”, would open to around 1500 pupils in August, the council said.
‘Swinging the axe’
THE Scottish Trades Union Congress said the scale of sell-offs was “as alarming as it is unsurprising.” Local authorities were “swinging the axe” at services which provide “vital support for everyone in our towns and cities”, warned deputy general secretary, Dave Moxham.
“Yet again, it’s the failure of politicians – their grave, unforgivable inaction on redistributing wealth – which has pulled the shutters down on our services,” he argued.
Some opposition parties laid the blame for the councils’ sales at the door of the Scottish Government.
“It’s a measure of the SNP Government’s chronic underfunding of Scotland’s local authorities that, to make ends meet, councils are being forced to cut services and sell off the properties that provided them,” claimed Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for local government, Craig Hoy.
“However, councils have been left with little choice but to take this course of action because the Scottish Government has failed to listen to warnings about the state of their finances,” alleged local government spokesperson, Mark Griffin MSP.
“The UK Labour Government has delivered record funding for the Scottish Government, so the SNP have no excuses,” he claimed.
Campaign group We Own It, however, argued that governments both north and south of the Border shared responsibility for the “absolutely devastating” disposal of council property.
“Every one of these public assets made people’s lives better, every one was something that local communities owned collectively,” said Cat Hobbs, the group’s director.
“The message for both the Scottish Government and for Westminster must be: stop forcing councils to sell off the family silver. Demand that they steward these assets for future generations instead and give them the funding to do so.
“Cuts and austerity are a false economy, a quick fix with dire consequences. The damaging impact on communities today and in the long term must not be ignored.”
Budget settlements: shortchanged or ‘record’ high?
COSLA, which represents Scotland’s local authorities, said that while councils “work hard to continue running high-quality services”, they face significant budgetary challenges.
“This means that in some cases they have had to make difficult decisions about which properties and services they can continue to run,” said a spokesperson.
“Cosla will continue to advocate for a fair budget settlement for Scottish local government that recognises the importance of local decision making in getting the best outcomes for our communities.”
The Scottish Government said it had given councils “a record £15.1 billion this year – a real terms increase of 5.5%”.
“The total local government finance settlement increased by almost 50% between 2013-14 and 2025-26,” a spokesperson said.
“Most local authorities have had to account for the planned hike in employer national insurance contributions and the UK Government is entirely responsible for this.
“Local authorities are independent bodies and it is for them to decide how to manage their budgets and property portfolios based on local needs and priorities.”
Every council named in this article was approached for comment.
