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According to a new survey of municipal councils, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Financial Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending 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 open spaces to support their finances, but they argue they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the disposal of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to generate £20m over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and commercial properties owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will have to raise local levies next April to cover 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 temporary accommodation.

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

He continued: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a local government body, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of regional authorities this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring Send support.

A network of councils said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage rising needs.

Ministers have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until next year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) covering English councils, several key cities members were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities 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 among the ten most deprived for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that accounts for and addresses the actual extent of disadvantage and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which essential services to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the study found.