Buckinghamshire Council agrees spending plans and council tax rates for the coming year

The final budget was voted on by full council last at a meeting last night, where spending plans of more than £600 million on local services and communities were agreed.

The budget includes the following investment over a four-year period:

• £182.5 million on schools
• £130.1 million on strategic infrastructure such as the new South East Aylesbury Link Road
• £120 million on highways
• £30.4 million on waste and recycling services
• £24.8 million on housing and homelessness
• £22.7 million on regeneration projects particularly focussing on town centre improvements
• £10.7 million on highways drainage
• £10.7 million on flood management

These spending decisions were informed by local residents during consultation last Autumn, who told the council they wanted adult social care services, roads and education to be prioritised.

The council’s Medium Term Financial Plan details how it will balance the books until 2028, and outlines significant spending pressures the council is facing, particularly with increased cost and demand in social care, temporary accommodation and transporting children with additional needs to and from school. These services make up 71% of the council’s overall budget, leaving 29% left to pay for everything else.

Both the Capital and Revenue budgets are funded mostly by council tax, which makes up 80% of the funding for the council’s services, with the remaining 20% coming from grants, central government and other income streams.

The council has made significant savings to run a balanced budget, totalling £116.8 million in its first five years of operation as a unitary authority. A further £115.6 million in savings has been identified over the next three years, to allow the council to keep investing in local services as well as providing the critical statutory support services such as social care that residents rely on.

The basic rate of council tax in Buckinghamshire will rise by 2.99 per cent from 1 April 2025, and the Adult Social Care precept will increase by 2 per cent, meaning a total rise of 4.99 per cent, or an extra £1.77 per week for the average Band D home during 2025/26.

Leader of Buckinghamshire Council, Martin Tett said:

“The last thing I want to do is raise council tax bills but we simply have no choice. The demand and costs for social care, school transport and temporary housing accommodation keep rising steeply. These are services that we legally must provide and are inspected upon. Central government calculates how much it will give us in grants based on the assumption councils will put bills up by the maximum allowed without a referendum and this is what we have had to do in Buckinghamshire.

Because of the enormous cost of some of our most important services to vulnerable people, we can only balance our books by finding huge savings and making difficult choices. These have included 10% cuts to the budget for councillor’s Allowances. It is only right that councillors contribute to making these savings.

I am however pleased that due to our prudent financial management, we are not in as precarious a position as so many other councils who are putting up council tax by much larger amounts. Thirty councils are now in receipt of Exceptional Financial Support from central Government.

In Buckinghamshire we can invest in our roads, schools and town centre improvements and we can balance the books for the next three years. While the context remains risky and challenging, I am pleased we have done our best for our residents and have been able to direct their council tax at the services and priorities that matter most.”