Agenda item

Purpose of report

To present the draft budget proposals and estimates for 2026/27 for the General Fund.

Decision

Cabinet made the following recommendations to Council:

1.     Set a General Fund budget requirement of £22.875m for 2026/27 inclusive of Special Expenses (Section 3 and Appendix A of the report).

2.     Propose a Council Tax level of £195.03 including Special Expenses for 2026/27 (Band D property) after consideration of the consultation responses.

3.     Note indicative Budget estimates for 2027/28 and 2028/29 (Appendix A of the report).

4.     Approve the General Fund Capital programme and financing statement 2026/27 to 2028/29 (Section 6 and Appendix B of the report).

5.     Approve the General Fund Capital Programme budget carry forward £1.389m from 2025/26 (Appendix B).

6.     Approve the movements in General Fund Reserves (Section 8 and Appendix C of the report).

7.     Approve the Treasury Management Strategy Statement (Section 9 and Appendix F).

8.     To approve the Capital Strategy (Section 9 and Appendix G of the report).

Other options considered

The alternative options were considered throughout the report.

Reasons for the decision

The Council was required to set a balanced budget each financial year.

At Joint Budget OSC it was highlighted that the Government has completed their fair funding review. For SKDC this resulted in a multi-year settlement to 2028/2029. Whilst this provided some financial certainty, the Government has said that the latter two years may be subject to a future reassessment.

On 9 February 2026 the final settlement was confirmed by Government  outlining that an element of business rate funding was being taken away from some local councils. The Government had committed to offsetting this loss to SKDC in 2026/2027 through an ‘Adjustment Support Grant’. It was unclear whether this Grant was a one-off payment or would continue into future years. Without the Grant, the forecasted Budget for 2027/2028 would contain a deficit position.

In January 2026 SKDC launched their Council Tax consultation with residents. 61% of respondents supported the Council’s proposals to increase Council Tax by 2.99% (£5.66 increase on a Band D property). This was an increase on the 55% support seen in the previous year’s consultation.

A balanced budget had been achieved. Within this, £20,000 would be committed towards the ‘Newton 300’ celebrations, earmarked from the £100,000 events budget. Once the budget outturn position was known, it was likely that the £100,000 budget would be replenished. Funding for the district’s market towns had also been made available.

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There was a debate about fees associated with houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs) at Full Council on 29 January 2026. A ‘sliding scale’ of fees had been discussed; officers have since looked again at staffing resources in relation to HMOs, as well as benchmarking against other local authorities. A proposal would be brought back to Full Council on 26 February 2026.

Proposed recurring budget increases were: