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Agenda item

Draft Budget 2026/27 version 2

Purpose:

This report provides an update on the developing budget for 2026/27 following the provisional government funding settlement announcement on 17 December 2025.

 

Recommendations:

That the Executive resolves to:

1.  Approve the Fees and Charges for 2026/27, as detailed in Annex D.

 

That the Executive resolves to recommend to Full Council to:

2. Approve the Council Tax Base shown in Annex C, calculated as 49,561.59 for the year 2026/27.

3.  Authorise the Director of Finance to submit the National Non-Domestic Rates Return 1 (NNDR1) to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by the submission date of 31 January 2026.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, introduced the item, the purpose of which was to provide an update on the developing budget for 2026/27 following the provisional government funding settlement which was announced on 17 December 2025.

 

In his presentation Councillor Smith focussed on the following areas of the report:

 

  • The Council would approve the final budget, along with strategy papers for Treasury Management, Capital and Investments on 25 February 2026.
  • The second draft presented to the meeting had been updated with the provisional government funding settlement which had been announced on 17 December 2025, draft fees and charges and the final Council Tax Base.
  • The second draft showed a contribution to general fund reserves of £650,884 before growth requests. This position was significantly more optimistic than that initially presented following publication of the funding formula review in June 2025.
  • The change in estimated funding in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) presented to Executive in December was a result of the Income Protection Floor. The expected cash-cut and cash-flat were not realised and subsequently there were material changes to the MTFS assumptions that had been made in June 2025. The table in the report at section 2.7 showed the changes in the funding position between June and those confirmed in December.
  • The surplus from the Business Rates Pool, which the Council had chosen not to budget for, had been moved to earmarked reserves over recent years and would fund future gaps in revenue for the period of the MTFS and until the future Unitary Authority took over the Council’s functions.
  • Assumptions were set out in the report at section three.
  • Improvements in the revenue position related to: the expected disposal of a property at Between Towns Road which would provide a budget saving in terms of future costs; bringing employees back to the Council from Publica and potential changes in the Council’s public convenience provision.
  • Increases in the income portfolio included: Investment property; development management and trade waste.
  • Growth requests could be seen at section 4.2 of the report. These were required to deliver services at the Council. Councillor Smith suggested members of the Executive would report on the growth requests in their respective portfolios later in the meeting.
  • Further items were to be reported to the Executive in February and would include the Capital Programme, Minimum Revenue Position and External Borrowing.
  • The Fees and Charges that were set out in the paper at section seven were in three categories: Those which were set centrally; those set on a cost recovery basis and those which were discretionary to the Council. 
  • The Capital Programme would be updated for February.
  • The detailed analysis of the results of the Council’s budget consultation which had ran to 19 December 2025 would be presented to the Executive and Council in February.

 

In the discussion Executive members noted and welcomed growth requests included in the budget in their respective portfolio areas (shown in section 4.2 of the report):

 

Councillor Rachel Crouch, Executive Member for Stronger Healthy Communities, stated that she was pleased that the budget had recognised funding needed for additional officer hours to work on preventing violence against women and girls in rural areas and to address health inequalities.

 

Councillor Hugo Ashton, Executive Member for Planning, welcomed the inclusion of sufficient resources to support the local plan process. Councillor Ashton was also pleased to note that the infrastructure development team had been strengthened to ensure that the correct contributions and funding was obtained from developers.

 

Referencing her portfolio of Environment, Councillor Lidia Arciszewska recognised growth provided by the budget in two areas. Firstly the appointment of an Environmental Crime Officer and secondly a statutory duties post that would support work around the Renters Rights Bill and pollution services.

 

Councillor Andrew Prosser, Executive Member for Climate Action and Nature Recovery, elaborated on the intention to extend the officer role in nature recovery as the original grant funding had ended. This was an important role that had included work such as connecting children to nature and the work had brought in more funding than it had cost to resource.

 

Councillor Geoff Saul, Executive Member for Housing and Social Care, gave the meeting background on the surge in residents presenting as homeless and the increase cost to the Council of providing temporary accommodation. Councillor Saul detailed the Council’s intention to increase the Council owned temporary housing supply to ten properties.

 

A Member queried the figures for the increase in the tax base for Woodstock between 2025/26 and 2026/27 and suggested that the increase presented in the report appeared small. The Executive invited the Head of Finance to respond who advised that this figure could appear small due to a number of factors which were taken into account in arriving at the figure. The Officer reminded Members that the figure was an estimate of the number of additional band D equivalent properties made fifteen months in advance of the known figure.

 

Councillor Smith proposed accepting the recommendations of the report.

 

Councillor Andy Graham, Leader of the Council, seconded the proposal and reiterated that the Council needed to ensure that it kept services functioning irrespective of LGR. It was essential to continue to invest in the improvement of assets to ensure that they would continue to provide the return necessary to fund services. The Council now had a Property Asset Plan which facilitated such work.

 

This was voted on and approved unanimously.

 

RESOLVED:

That the Executive:

  1. Approved the Fees and Charges for 2026/27, as detailed in Annex D.

 

That the Executive recommended to Full Council to:

  1. Approve the Council Tax Base shown in Annex C, calculated as 49,561.59 for the year 2026/27.
  2. Authorise the Director of Finance to submit the National Non-Domestic Rates Return 1 (NNDR1) to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by the submission date of 31 January 2026.

Supporting documents:

 

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