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According to a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to offload social clubs, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously 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 declare themselves bankrupt.

The group said that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using savings to weather increasing financial challenges.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to address the rising cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

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

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase 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.”

Countrywide Trends and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities this week further found local finances being strained by the growing number of young people 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 struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls

According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many participating urban areas were included in the most deprived in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting funding system that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and demand,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the last year, the survey found.