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According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past faced criticism for disposing of public land and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing financial challenges.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over five years.

• A local golf course and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the strategy.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that more than 70% of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

Countrywide Trends and Projections

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

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have delayed scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Funding Shortfalls

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in England.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” said the report.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures underscores the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, 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.