We are inviting stakeholders including residents, businesses and preceptors to help shape the District’s priorities for the year ahead as part of its 2026-27 budget consultation.
The Council presented its General Fund 2026/27 base budget position as part of a Cabinet report on 27 November 2025, consisting of recurrent and previously agreed non-recurrent budgets, and budget change proposals deemed non-discretionary.
Certain essential services, like waste collection, recycling, environmental health, and housing, must be provided by law and are therefore termed as mandatory services. We have to allocate budgets to ensure these services are delivered in an effective, timely, and compliant manner.
This baseline position of the budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy allows any gaps in funding or delivery to be identified, which will be reviewed as part of the next stage of the budget setting process.
The second stage will incorporate the Councils funding provided through the Government’s Local Finance Settlement, received on 17 December, and identify what funding is available once the base budget position is balanced to support additional proposals, including service growth, capital investment, and reserve allocations, to deliver the Council’s Corporate Strategy objectives.
The consultation, running from 22 December until 19 January 2026, is part of this second stage, and gives everyone the chance to share their views on how the Council should allocate funding, with a number of investments presented for consideration. We are asking that these proposals are prioritised in order from most important to least important. Since it is unlikely that we will be able to fund every proposal put forward by service areas, we need your help to decide which areas to focus on first.
The results of the survey will then be collated and reviewed as part of the process, in order to present a budget for 2026/27 for approval by Full Council on 18 February 2026.