Despite the significant action taken since 2023 to get the financial situation under control, by making savings, transforming services, generating income, and strengthening governance – it is clear the council will need further government support to set a balanced budget and deliver the services residents need.
The Royal Borough’s low level of council tax, and high levels of debt, combined with changes to the way government allocate funding to councils following their Fair Funding Review, has resulted in the council not having the financial resilience to meet the increasing demand for key services.
This is despite the 8.99% increase in council tax this year, which still left Royal Borough’s bills among the lowest in the country – with a Band D property almost £500 a year below the national average.
Given the scale of the £51m budget gap, and despite £6m savings from transforming services, it’s clear the council will need to maximise any increase in council tax that can be agreed with government for 2026/27.
This follows the government indicating they will consider council tax flexibility for local authorities facing significant financial difficulty, given their recently announced formula for distributing central government funding assumes councils are charging the national average for council tax.
The council would also look to build in funding to provide support for the borough’s most vulnerable residents, to protect them from any additional council tax increase.
To rectify historic budget issues and respond to increases in demand-led pressures - the draft budget also includes proposed increased spending of £14m – including:
- Adult social care: additional funding of £3.35m to support people to remain in their own homes and live a safe and independent life for as long as possible.
- Children’s services: to meet rising demand and costs of care placements – an additional amount of £5.65m will be invested.
- Housing and temporary accommodation: an additional £1.88m funding to meet rising demand and costs, and transform housing services.
- Maintenance budget boost: £1.17m aimed at improving borough parks, carparks, council owned buildings and other areas in need of repair.
Council Leader, Cllr Simon Werner said: “It’s clear that we are still paying the price for the financial recklessness of the past and we’ll need to continue to make tough decisions alongside securing additional support from government - to fix the mess we inherited and set a balanced budget.
“While we’re continuing to make significant savings and transform services, this is not a budget of cuts - our plans ensure resident facing services including our libraries, family centres and leisure services will continue to be delivered.
“We’re also putting money back into the services that matter to our residents, including increasing maintenance budgets which were stripped out in the past to improve our parks and car parks.”
The council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Lynne Jones said: “Our draft budget proposes an increase in spending to deliver the services residents need – helping to repair the damage from years of underfunding.
“On top of our extremely low levels of our council tax income, the changes to how government allocate grant funding will see the Royal Borough as one of the biggest losers nationally - yet we are experiencing the same increasing service demand pressures as other areas.
“By severely reducing our funding government has torn apart our medium-term plan for financial recovery and forced us into a position where there is no choice but to turn to them for significant support - to enable the council to continue to be financially viable and deliver the services our residents deserve.”
The draft budget also addresses actions within the council’s Financial Improvement and Sustainability Plan and is presented to Cabinet alongside a ‘one year on’ report - demonstrating the significant progress made in the councils’ improvement journey around five themes which aim to improve governance, control expenditure, reduce cost, prioritise resources, maximise value and better utilise the council’s asset base.
Following the Cabinet meeting, the proposals will be subject to public consultation, with results reported to Cabinet in February 2026 - ahead of the final budget, including the outcome discussions with government on support, being put to Council for approval in March 2026.