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According to a new poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of councils are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

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

The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise service redesigns and utilising savings to manage increasing financial challenges.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales

One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent housing shortage.

Medway council said 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 deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said a council leader.

He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Projections

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

The County Councils Network projected 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.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most deprived in England.

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

“Although only one key city is in the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures underscores the scale of challenges facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.