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According to a latest poll of local authorities, English councils are preparing to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK reported that six out of ten of local authorities are planning to sell assets to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.

This coalition noted that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Cases of Proposed Disposals

One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in a local town and a community venue in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for the authority, will also be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Strains

The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of authorities will have to raise council taxes next April to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding housing shortage.

The authority explained it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.

He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to add to the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from over the past decade, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

Research of regional authorities this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

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

Deprivation and Financial Shortfalls

According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.

“Although only a single urban area is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data highlights the extent of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a equitable and lasting funding system that accounts for and addresses the real levels of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

“Lacking this, councils will persist to face difficult decisions around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their communities.”

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