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According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas 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.

Councils have previously come under fire for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.

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

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.

“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils 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 cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.