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Based on a latest poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their budgets, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group said that a high proportion of councils attempting to generate funds from a quick sale of holdings marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England said its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in another town to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Council Tax Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures

The survey of councils in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of councils will have to raise council taxes 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 proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of youth support, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures require time to deliver both improved services and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He added: “We face demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Projections

A survey of county councils recently also found council budgets being strained by the increasing figures of children and adults requiring Send support.

The County Councils Network projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those reforms was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

According to the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived in the country.

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

“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, urban areas are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the scale of difficulties facing municipal officials across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.

“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of disadvantage and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study revealed.