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According to a latest poll of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and retail spaces as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.

Increasing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group representing second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for disposing of playing fields and land to support their budgets, but they argue they must continue to raise vital cash from property disposals or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of authorities attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of municipal officials stated they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Detailed Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in Kent said its property management strategy included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• 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.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the coalition, which includes several urban centers, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase local levies next spring to cover the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

Medway council said it will press ahead with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

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

He continued: “We face population challenges which will continue to increase 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 Trends and Projections

A survey of regional authorities recently also found council budgets being stretched by the increasing figures of children and adults needing Send support.

A network of councils said that local shortfalls will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by 2029, as they struggle to manage increased demand.

Government officials have delayed planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a white paper outlining those changes has been postponed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

According to the latest indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, several key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

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

“Although only one key city is among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are far more likely to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of difficulties confronting municipal officials across major urban centers in the next twelve months,” the report added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” stated a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face difficult decisions around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

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