Dear Editor: B&NES Councillors have voted to approve the Council’s spending plans and set Council Tax for the coming financial year 2026/27. Much of the debate at the authority’s budget-setting meeting was focused on the impact of the so-called “Fair Funding” review – the shake-up that will see B&NES lose £12.5m a year by 2028/29.
I’m proud to present to council a balanced budget proposal that, despite £12.5m of funding cuts over the next three years, protects frontline services, and invests in the things that matter to the residents of Bath & North East Somerset. However, this year’s budget setting has been unnecessarily complicated by the Government’s Fair Funding reforms and the way they have been handled. In three years’ time, we are going to be £12.5m worse off every year than we would have been without these changes. We have not responded by panic-cutting, but this will place a huge amount of pressure on the council over the coming years. Lib Dem Councillors highlighted the importance of ‘prevention’ as a theme of the budget proposals, with early investment intended to produce better outcomes for residents, as well as long-term savings. This includes innovations such as funding home improvements to enable Foster Carers to host more placements, getting vulnerable children out of expensive, privately-run care facilities and into family homes.
The biggest pressures on councils, nationally and locally, are social care pressures. Our proposals highlight the scale of budget growth required, a net increase of nearly £6.4m in social care funding overall. Our strong focus with that increased spending will be on prevention. The only way to arrest these huge inflationary pressures across the council, whether in social care or in any of the other services the council delivers, will be to intervene earlier, in an effort to prevent higher costs materialising later. This is the difference between a responsible administration and performative politics. We have not pretended that the pressures don’t exist. We have not built a fantasy budget. We have been honest with ourselves and with the public about the pressures, and we always will be. We have sought to protect our most vulnerable residents, and we have still brought forward a lawful, balanced plan for next year.
Councillors also welcomed funding for improvements across a range of other areas representing Lib Dem manifesto priorities, including:
- Over £9.5m investment into highways maintenance and tackling potholes, including around £1m on footways.
- £2.9m for safer active travel – the largest ever allocation, which will deliver 11 pedestrian crossings and 14 new 20 mph zones.
- Over £26m of funding for sustainable transport schemes to improve residents travel choices and highway safety, secured from the West of England Combined Authority, including through the Somer Valley and Bath city centre.
- £350,000 for greener places projects, including Somer Valley Rediscovered, Chew Valley Reconnected, Bathscape, and Bath RiverLine, supporting residents’ health and wellbeing, nature recovery, growth and climate adaptation.
- Funding for renewables includes £1.8m towards a hydroelectric scheme to replace the radial gate at Pultney Weir; £3.5m over 5 years to electrify waste and recycling vehicles; and £1.1m to install EV charging at the multi-award-winning Keynsham recycling depot, increasing sustainability and resilience of council activities, reducing pollution, and saving on running costs.
- £75k set aside for the “Parks for all” project, aiming to make parks more accessible and inclusive; another £75k per year for 5 years for the “Parks Pulse” project, installing sports equipment; and £360k to continue our rolling programme of play area refurbishments.
- Better Moorings Programme of £395,000 over three years for Pulteney Area Moorings and £314,000 for Mead Lane Moorings.
- £320,000 growth in funding for Community Safety, covering crime and anti-social behaviour reduction, substance misuse, Public Space Protection Orders, and work with partners to identify and prevent serious violence. This funding includes £35,000 to strengthen preventative work stopping harm before it happens, including interventions for those at risk of perpetrating domestic abuse—programmes that reduce repeat incidents and improve the outcomes for survivors.
- Funding for SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) places in schools and moving ahead with preparatory works for new education facilities at Culverhay.
- £500k over two years for the recently approved home improvement scheme to help get cared-for children out of private care facilities and into family foster homes.
Councillors approved a net revenue budget of £193.17m for 2026/27 including a general Council Tax increase of 2.99% and an Adult Social Care Precept increase of 2%.
This results in a total proposed Band D Council Tax for Bath & North East Somerset Council next year of £1,914.03 (£1,823.06 in 2025/26) an overall increase of 4.99% or £90.97 per Band D (£1.75 per week).
Councillors approved the 2026/27 budget proposals by 46 votes in favour, to 6 against and 3 abstentions.
Cllr Mark Elliott, Bath & North East Somerset Council
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