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Based on a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in England stated that six out of ten of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Strains

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

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

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Trends and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.

• “Participating urban centers 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 nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the survey found.