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According to a new survey of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas 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 previously come under fire for disposing of playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in Kent announced its property management strategy featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

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

Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

The authority said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing Send support.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

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

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.

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

“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” stated a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

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