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According to a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage growing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council 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 raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase 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 very challenging.”

National Trends and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring Send support.

The County Councils Network projected 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 special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders 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 accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.