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According to a new study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council said 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 innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils this week further found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage rising needs.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in 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 study.

“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

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

One in five of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.