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According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

One local authority in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a social club in another town to generate 20 million pounds over five years.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

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

“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He added: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Forecasts

A survey of regional authorities recently further found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in England.

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

“While only one key city is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data underscores the extent of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and responds to the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, 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 revealed.