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According to a new poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of assets to balance the books.

Growing Financial Challenges Prompt Asset Sales

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

Local governments have in the past come under fire for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their budgets, but they argue they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or face insolvency.

The group noted that a high proportion of councils attempting to raise money from a quick sale of holdings marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (60%) of local leaders stated they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to manage increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Planned Disposals

One local authority in southeast England announced its asset disposal plan featured the sale of a shopping centre in Rainham and a community venue in Rochester to raise £20m over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and commercial properties owned in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will additionally be disposed of under the strategy.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Financial Pressures

This research of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to increase council taxes next spring to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but certain measures require time to achieve both better provisions and financial savings,” stated a council leader.

He added: “We face population challenges which will continue 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 county councils this week further found council budgets being stretched by the growing number of children and adults requiring special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will reach 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they struggle to cope with increased demand.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the Send system until next year after a policy document setting out those changes was recently delayed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

Based on the most recent deprivation measures (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) covering UK local authorities, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Participating urban centers like several major towns rank in the top 30 across the country under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the study.

“Although only one key city is among the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the scale of difficulties facing local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the report concluded.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the necessity for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Lacking this, local authorities will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to cut, to the disadvantage of their communities.”

One in five of councils have cut or compromised care services in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.