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According to a latest study of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

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

This coalition noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Cases of Planned Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

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

Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” 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 drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

Research of county councils recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

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

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“While only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

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