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Based on a recent poll of local authorities, UK councils are planning to offload social clubs, athletic facilities, and retail spaces as they rely on a fire sale of properties to stabilize finances.

Increasing Fiscal Pressures Drive Asset Sales

A coalition of councils representing major urban areas in England stated that 60% of local authorities are planning to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of adult and children’s social care.

Councils have previously faced criticism for selling playing fields and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must continue to generate essential revenue from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

This coalition said that a significant number of councils attempting to generate funds from a fire sale of holdings represented “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and using savings to weather increasing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Examples of Proposed Sales

Medway Council in Kent announced its asset disposal plan included the disposal of a shopping centre in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over the next half-decade.

• A local golf course and business parks owned in two English counties, which all generate rent for the authority, will additionally be disposed of under the plan.

Council Tax Increases and Wider Fiscal Pressures

This research of councils in the coalition, which covers several urban centers, further found that more than 70% of councils will need to raise local levies next spring to address the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of housing insecurity, and a persistent accommodation deficit.

The authority explained it will press ahead with asset sales after sharp increases in the cost of youth support, special educational needs and disability (Send) provision, elderly and disability services, and temporary accommodation.

“We are adopting creative strategies but certain measures require time to deliver both better provisions and financial savings,” said Vince Maple.

He continued: “We face demographic pressures which will persist to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a drastic reduction in our revenue support grant from over the past decade, which is very challenging.”

Countrywide Patterns and Projections

A survey of regional authorities recently also found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and older individuals needing special educational assistance.

The County Councils Network said that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with rising needs.

Ministers have put off scheduled changes to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.

Disadvantage and Funding Gaps

According to the latest deprivation measures (IMD) covering English councils, many key cities members were included in the most disadvantaged in the country.

• “Member cities like several major towns rank in the top 30 nationally under the 2025 IMD measures,” said the report.

“Although only a single urban area is in the ten most deprived for disadvantaged communities countrywide, cities are far more likely to be in the worst-off 20% of the nation. The figures highlights the extent of challenges confronting local leaders across key cities in the next twelve months,” the analysis added.

“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a equitable and lasting financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” stated Michael Mordey.

“Without this, councils will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their residents.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened social care provision in the last year, the survey found.