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According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils for second-tier cities in the UK stated that six out of ten of councils are intending to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have previously come under fire for disposing of public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a local government body, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of county councils this week also found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a white paper outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton place in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders 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 demand,” said Michael Mordey.

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

A fifth of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.