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According to a recent survey of local authorities, UK councils are planning to sell community centers, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are planning to sell assets to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have in the past come under fire for disposing of playing fields and land to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group noted that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising savings to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Sales

One local authority in Kent said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

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

Local Levy Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next spring to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” stated Vince Maple.

He added: “We face population challenges which will persist 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 very challenging.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of young people and adults requiring Send support.

A network of councils projected that council deficits will reach £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until the coming year after a white paper setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

Based on the latest deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the study.

“While only a single urban area is in the top 10 for disadvantaged communities countrywide, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges 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 funding system that reflects and responds to the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the detriment of their residents.”

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised care services in the last year, the study revealed.