According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.
Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.
Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.
This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”
Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales
Medway Council in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.
- Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.
Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.
He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”
National Patterns and Projections
Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.
Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls
According to the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in England.
- “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.
“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.
“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”
One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.
