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According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

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

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from property disposals or face insolvency.

The group noted that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (six in ten) of local leaders stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in Kent said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next April to address the rising cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to add to the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being strained by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.

The County Councils Network said that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

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

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“While only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of challenges confronting municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system 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 fund, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the last year, the survey revealed.