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According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to support their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

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

He added: “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 extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of young people and older individuals needing Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the extent of challenges facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and demand,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

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