Cornwall Council has approved its budget for 2025/26, which will see a 4.99% increase in council tax rates. This includes a 2% levy to be used for adult social care.
The plans include an increase of £22 million in the council’s net spending on care for adults and children.
“This has been far and away the most difficult budget to develop and put forward to council,” said Cllr David Harris, deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for resources.
“To get to the original balanced budget that we presented to cabinet in November involved asking services to find £47 million in savings on top of everything that had been asked for in previous years, and then of course we got the additional ‘smack in the face’ when government announced the funding settlements for 2025/26.
“This annual budget is becoming near-on impossible given the mismatch between growing demand and cost on one hand and stretched resources on the other. I’ve heard many other council leaders expressing the same view, as they also try to present a balanced budget for 2025/26 as we all must.
“But as we’ve seen in recent days, an increasing number of councils cannot achieve that legal requirement without exceptional financial support from the Government.”
He added: “It really underlines the scale of the fiscal challenge faced by the sector when 30 councils have been allowed exceptional financial support via capitalisation flexibility to the combined value of £1.4 billion for 2025/26. That number is up from 19 councils last year, so it’s becoming a misnomer to call it ‘exceptional’, sadly it’s becoming the norm.
“That is an indicator of how tough it’s become for local authorities. The fact that Cornwall Council is not one of those 30 councils is testament to the sound financial management of this authority, which isn’t easy given our size and complexity.”
Following a detailed debate, the budget was approved by a majority of councillors, and will now be adopted by the authority.
