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Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England reported that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases 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 require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He added: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut 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 local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

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

Disadvantage and Financial Shortfalls

According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

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