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Based on a recent poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales

One local authority in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

National Trends and Forecasts

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

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.