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According to a latest study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

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

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of authorities seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next spring to address the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council said it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals needing Send support.

The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Ministers have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey found.