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Based on a new poll of local authorities, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities 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 disposing of public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a significant number of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises 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 certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.

“Without this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.