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Based on a latest survey of municipal councils, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Sales

One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Wider Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to increase council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead 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 creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to 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.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number 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 struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

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

“While only one key city is among 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 extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, 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 found.