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According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to raise council taxes next April to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

A survey of county councils recently further found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.