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Based on a new poll of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will need to raise local levies next April to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper setting out those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“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 most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the scale of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders 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 Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the study revealed.