Wiltshire Council unveils budget proposals

Wiltshire Council has published its budget proposals for the 2025 to 2026 period – detailing how it will continue to invest in key quality services for the county’s residents, businesses and communities while living within its means and not relying on its reserves.    

In a demonstration of its strong position, the council has opted not to increase the Wiltshire Council element of council tax by the full amount government has permitted – instead, proposing to raise it by 4.5% (2.5% for basic council tax and a 2% adult social care levy) rather than the full 4.99% permitted. If agreed, this would see an increase of £1.56 per week for those in a Band D property for the Wiltshire Council element of council tax.   

Wiltshire Council Leader Richard Clewer and Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Nick Botterill will be hosting a public webinar on the 4th of February from 6 pm to discuss the proposals in more detail.

For more information and the link to join the webinar, people should visit https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-budgets-spending. 

Although the council has received some extra social care funding from the government of around £4.8m, challenges have emerged following confirmation of its provisional local government finance settlement at the end of last year, which the council has had to respond quickly to.

Wiltshire Council has almost £8 million less national funding this year through changes to government grants and employees' national insurance contributions. Most of this funding was via the Rural Services Delivery Grant, designed to enable large rural authorities like Wiltshire to meet the extra costs involved in delivering services across a wide geography with significant travel times – issues not faced by urban authorities.  

Other funding recently announced is the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (EPR) where producers are now required to pay into a national scheme based on the type and quantity of packaging that they place onto the market. In December, the government announced Wiltshire’s EPR payment with a minimum value set at £7.6 million to be used solely to fund effective and efficient service delivery and increase recycling rates for packaging materials.    

The council has once again mapped out its future financial picture across the next few years, favouring a longer-term strategic approach rather than living year to year with uncertainty. It is proposing its budget for the 2025/26 financial year without the need to dip into its reserves and is able to set aside nearly £6m of the EPR funding to help support future changes in waste services to meet new requirements.   
   
The proposed Wiltshire Council budget for 2025/26 is £527.42m, compared to last year’s £490m. The budget for 2025/26 sees a net £37m increase in spending on services, ensuring the resources are provided to deliver the council’s Business Plan priorities. In addition, around £53m has been added into the 2025/26 service budgets to support the delivery of services that are focussed on the council’s preventative and early help work, delivering the best outcomes for the residents of Wiltshire.   

The most significant areas of spend will be:  

• Adult services - £194m    

• Families and children - £75m    

• Highways and transport – £43.4m    

• Environment (including waste) - £49.5m   

• Education and skills - £38.08m  
     

The council's planning and long-term sustainable approach to its finances continues to have a positive impact on the reserves and its overall financial resilience. The council has ensured that it has the same amount of monies set aside to mitigate financial risks for 2025/26 as it did last year – which is around £34m.  

Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said: “Our preventative long-term approach and investing time and resources into our key services ensures that we are on a firm footing as a council, allowing us to continue to be ambitious while still acutely aware of the challenges we face.   

 “The budget gets trickier to set every year, but we have learned to be as self-reliant as possible and that’s perhaps where some other local authorities have fallen short. Councils throughout the country are dipping into their reserves to support their budgets, but we are not in that position. This is despite reduced grant funding from government and increasing costs.  

“Over the last year we have significantly invested in the likes of our highways, leisure services, adult and children social care, and taken a zero-tolerance stance on enforcement breaches – and we are really starting to see a return on that positive approach.    

 “We are still having to make tough decisions, such as proposing to increase council tax, but we don’t need to charge taxpayers more than is necessary. National funding, particularly support for rural councils like ours, continues to be so precarious and unpredictable so we feel our approach to council tax setting is sensible and responsible.  

 “It’s important to us get the absolute most out of every penny we spend as we take our responsibility of being publicly funded very seriously, but I feel the proposals we are putting forward clearly demonstrate an ambitious council as well as a prudent one, with the needs of our residents, communities and business right at the heart of every decision we make.”   

 The draft papers can be found at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-budgets-spending.