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

Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% 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 selling playing fields and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England announced its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• 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 Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of authorities will need to increase council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and older individuals needing Send support.

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

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

Disadvantage and Funding Shortfalls

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

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

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study found.