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Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have previously come under fire for selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures 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 Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, 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 has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in England.

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

“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.