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According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

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

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

He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

National Trends and Forecasts

A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults needing Send support.

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

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”

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