Torbay Council's Cabinet has published its final budget proposals for the 2026/27 budget.

Our proposals were first published for consultation on 3 December 2025, and Cabinet will now consider and determine the final proposals this evening (Tuesday 17 February). They can be viewed on the Council's website along with the Cabinet agenda (Agenda for Cabinet on Tuesday, 17 February 2026, 5.30 pm). These final proposals will be presented to Full Council on 26 February 2026 for approval.

Cabinet is proposing a balanced net Revenue Budget of £205.334million for 2026/2027 and a Capital Investment Plan of £126.865 million for the period up to 2028/29, for Council’s consideration.

Councillor David Thomas, Leader of Torbay Council, said:

"Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the 2026/27 budget proposals. When we launched the consultation in December, the approach we set out was one of strong financial management and creating a sustainable financial future for our residents and visitors.

We are continuing to ensure our residents are at the heart of everything we do by ensuring continued financial stability in a very challenging budget position given the three-year settlement we have received from Government. It is essential that we plan now to minimise the impact of reductions that the Council will have to make in future years. This is why we are proposing a series of adjustments to our initial plans. These include strengthening our financial resilience by creating new reserves to support essential transformation work across both adult social care and the wider council, a reserve to fund the 10% contribution to SEND costs and ensuring Council Tax is set at the level required by Government to protect wider funding. We will be using existing resources to focus Operation Brighter Bay so that improvements are more visible within our residential communities as well as key visitor areas.

We are confident that these proposals enable us to take a longer-term strategic approach over the next three to four years. We will continue to make the case to Government for fairer funding for Torbay, which has already contributed to an improved position in the final settlement.

The Cabinet recognise that the funding settlement from Government does not allow us to respond to the consultation feedback received from residents, however we are committed to focussing any end of year underspend on the areas identified by residents as being most important.”

In response to the feedback received from Overview and Scrutiny, residents and taking into account the final funding allocations from Government, Cabinet has made a number of changes to the proposals first published in December. These include the following:

• Allocating £400,000 on a one-off basis to support transformation activity, helping to sustainably reduce Council spending in future years.
• Creating a new SEND Higher Needs Block reserve with a £1.7 million one‑off allocation to meet the Council’s required 10% contribution to forthcoming national Dedicated Schools Grant policy changes.
• Establishing a new Adult Social Care reserve, with £730,000 allocated to support transformation and begin developing long term funding solutions for the service.
• Increasing Council Tax by 4.99%, reflecting the Government’s explicit expectation and the financial risk of receiving reduced funding if the full increase is not applied.
• Using the additional one-off Government funding received this year to help smooth financial pressures in future years and reduce the severity of savings required in the later years of the settlement.

These changes are set out in full within the published budget papers. 

The Cabinet's final budget proposals will be considered at the meeting of the Council which is being held on 26 February. The Council Tax levels for Torbay will also be set at that meeting.

Details of the meetings when the budget proposals will be discussed are available on the Council's website via: https://www.torbay.gov.uk/meetings-and-decisions

Live Streaming and Hybrid Arrangements to encourage more people to engage in our public meetings the Council is live streaming our Cabinet meetings on our YouTube channel in addition to recording the meetings and publishing the recording on our website. To watch the meeting live please visit https://www.youtube.com/user/torbaycouncil

ENDS