Budget for 2026/2027

At Full Council on 26 February, the 2026/27 budget was agreed and the Council Tax was set. The Revenue Budget of £205.334million for 2026/2027 and a Capital Investment Plan of £126.865 million for the period up to 2028/29 were also agreed. This ensures we can continue to deliver our services for you.

An increase to Council Tax by 4.99% was approved and understanding the pressure in Adult Social Care, the 2% precept will be spent in this area with 2.99% for other services. This increase reflects the continuing impact of the cost of living crisis on local households, as well as the rising costs we face in delivering essential services.

Each 1% increase in Council Tax generates £960,000 in income. This is the only means that we have to raise more funding for our place-based and housing services. We have read all your feedback from the Budget Consultation. Cabinet has recognised though that due to the funding settlement from Government being lower than expected, it does not allow them to respond to the feedback and make changes. However, Cabinet are committed to focussing any end of year underspend on the areas identified by residents as being most important.

With the final allocations of funding from Government being confirmed, changes were made to the initial proposals and they have now been approved. These include:

• £400,000 one off funding to support transformation work that will help sustainably reduce future costs
• Creating a new SEND Higher Needs Block reserve (£1.7m) to meet the Council’s 10% contribution to national changes
• Establishing a new Adult Social Care reserve (£730k) to support essential transformation and long term planning
• Council Tax set at 4.99%, reflecting national expectations and protecting wider Government funding
• Using additional one off Government funding to smooth future financial pressures and reduce the severity of later year savings

Supporting documents