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According to a latest survey of municipal councils, English councils are planning to offload community centers, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to meet the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured 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.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Wider Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but certain measures take time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

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

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“While only a single urban area is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges facing municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the study revealed.