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Based on a new poll of municipal councils, English councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

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

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.