In 2026/27 we plan to spend £328 million providing hundreds of different services. A large and growing number of these services have received external recognition or positive quality ratings. We also plan to spend £129 million maintaining and building new facilities such as schools and roads.

Councils pay for local services using Council Tax, business rates, and money from central Government.

We are a financially prudent council. Hit by reduced government funding over recent years and increasing demand for social care, we have had to make some important decisions to reduce costs so that we can continue to provide these vital services. The council has reduced headcount by more than 150 staff and re-evaluated how it runs services to become leaner. However, the demand for, and cost of social care is still rising and means we must keep finding ways to reduce costs. In 2026/27, we are expecting £6.7 million additional costs in adult social care and an additional £1.7 million in children’s services.

Despite these challenges, we were set to be in a positive financial position in the coming year. We had managed these pressures and were going to be able to put money back in to reserves* and only raise Council Tax by 3%, instead of the maximum of 5%.

The Government has changed how it provides funding to local councils, which now means we will have less money from government. At the same time, the cost of services is rising.

As a direct result of these changes, we will receive £17 million less than we need for 2026/27, so once again we must make some difficult choices.

Our budget, which is open for consultation, sets out how we intend to meet this challenge in 2026/27, through a range of measures to reduce costs, increase income, and raise Council Tax by 5%. Not raising Council Tax would mean further cuts to services.

The government changes will mean that over the next three years our funding shortfall will reach £33 million. As a result, the council will need to make additional changes in the years to come.

*Reserves are like a savings pot for emergencies. To help cover some of the challenges over recent years, our reserves have reduced but we cannot keep doing this.