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Based on a new study of local authorities, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a high proportion of councils seeking to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

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 held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be sold under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

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

National Trends and Projections

Research of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were among the most deprived in England.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the report.

“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

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