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According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a high proportion of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of holdings represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Wider Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Projections

A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

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

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

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