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

Increasing Fiscal Challenges Drive 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 dispose of properties to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to support their finances, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash 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 represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would focus on service redesigns and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

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

Council Tax Increases and Broader Fiscal Strains

This research of councils in the key cities group, which covers Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will need to increase local levies next April to address the growing cost of core provisions, increased rates of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.

Medway council explained it will press ahead with property disposals after steep rises in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and temporary accommodation.

“We are taking creative strategies but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face population challenges which will persist to increase the strains we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”

National Patterns and Forecasts

A survey of county councils this week also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and older individuals requiring special educational assistance.

A network of councils projected that local shortfalls will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until next year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Financial Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (IMD) for UK local authorities, many participating urban areas were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“While only one key city is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The figures underscores the scale of difficulties confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report added.

“Council officials have been clear about the necessity for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices 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 past 12 months, the survey revealed.