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According to a latest study of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell community centers, sports centres, and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to stabilize finances.

Growing Fiscal Challenges Drive Asset Sales

The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK stated that 60% of councils are intending to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.

Local governments have in the past faced criticism for selling public land and land to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to raise vital cash from asset sales or declare themselves bankrupt.

The group noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a clear change from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of municipal officials said they would prioritise restructuring services and utilising financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”

Specific Cases of Planned Disposals

Medway Council in Kent announced its property management strategy included the sale of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise 20 million pounds over five years.

• A local golf course and commercial properties held in two English counties, which all provide rental income for Medway council, will also be sold under the plan.

Local Levy Rises and Broader Fiscal Pressures

This research of councils in the key cities group, which includes several urban centers, also found that over seven in ten of councils will need to raise council taxes next spring to cover the rising cost of essential services, higher levels of homelessness, and a persistent housing shortage.

The authority said it will proceed with asset sales after steep rises in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, elderly and disability services, and short-term housing.

“We are adopting innovative approaches but some of these take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” stated Vince Maple.

He added: “There are population challenges which will continue to increase the strains 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.”

National Patterns and Projections

Research of county councils this week further found local finances being stretched by the growing number of children and adults needing Send support.

The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit £4.4bn a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to manage increased demand.

Ministers have put off planned reforms to the special educational needs framework until the coming year after a policy document setting out those changes has been postponed.

Deprivation and Funding Gaps

Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (the Index of Multiple Deprivation) for English councils, many key cities members were among the most deprived 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 among the top 10 for disadvantaged communities nationally, cities are much more prone to be in the worst-off 20% of England. The figures highlights the scale of challenges facing local leaders across major urban centers in the coming year,” the analysis added.

“Local government leaders have been clear about the need for a fair and sustainable financial structure that reflects and addresses the real levels of deprivation and need,” said a council leader.

“Without this, local authorities will persist to face impossible choices around which essential services to fund, and which to cut, to the detriment of their communities.”

A fifth of councils have reduced or weakened care services in the past 12 months, the study found.