According to a recent study of local authorities, English councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.
Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales
A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals
One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over five years.
- A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.
Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures
This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.
Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.
He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
A survey of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.
A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.
Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls
According to the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.
“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.
“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”
A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.
