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Based on a recent poll of municipal councils, English councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a rapid disposal of properties to balance the books.

Growing Fiscal Pressures Prompt Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to sell assets to meet the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

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

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities seeking to generate funds from a fire sale of assets represented “a distinct shift from 2024, when the majority (six in ten) of local leaders said they would focus on restructuring services and utilising savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Disposals

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a community venue in Rochester to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• Gillingham golf club and business parks owned in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all provide rental income for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Local Levy Increases and Wider Financial Strains

The survey of local authorities in the coalition, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next April to address the growing cost of essential services, increased rates of housing insecurity, and a longstanding housing shortage.

Medway council said it will proceed with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, adult social care, and short-term housing.

“We are taking innovative approaches but some of these require time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated a council leader.

He continued: “There are population challenges which will persist to add to 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.”

Countrywide Patterns and Forecasts

Research of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of children and older individuals requiring Send support.

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

Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those reforms has been postponed.

Deprivation and Financial Gaps

According to the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for UK local authorities, several participating urban areas were among the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns place in the most deprived 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” noted the report.

“While only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of the nation. The data highlights the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the coming year,” the analysis concluded.

“Council officials have been explicit about the necessity for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and responds to the actual extent of deprivation and demand,” said Michael Mordey.

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

A fifth of local authorities have cut or compromised social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.