The council spent less than its approved budget in 2025 to 2026 with Cabinet councillors noting a £2.66 million underspend.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Cabinet councillors heard the agreed revenue budget for 2025 to 2026 was £105.597 million but the actual spending was £102.940 million.
The underspend has been returned to the council’s general reserves (savings) and will be available to help address future budget pressures.
Despite facing a possible overspend earlier in 2025 to 2026, the council took active steps to balance its books by:
- limiting or stopping non-essential spending
- carefully reviewing recruitment requests to reduce staffing costs
- encouraging all services to perform better than expected financially
These actions meant that money set aside in the corporate contingency to cover unexpected costs wasn’t all needed.
The revenue budget covers day-to-day spending, including:
- running local services like social care, waste collection, housing and homelessness support, community safety, libraries and leisure services, parks and countryside, public health, school admissions, pothole repairs and street lighting
- grants to community groups, charities and partner organisations - for example, South Hill Park, Involve and Citizens Advice
- debt and interest repayment on any loans or borrowing
- staff costs, office costs and utility bills
The council spent less than budgeted last year, knowing the saving was needed to strengthen reserves (money the council has as savings) and help manage future pressures. The council continues to face financial pressure now and will continue to do so in future years. This is due to:
- increasing demand for services like special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and social care
- rising costs and inflation
- years of central government underfunding
- a review of the money the council receives from central government (Fairer Funding Review 2.0), meaning grant funding is reducing in the coming years
Cllr Stephen O’ Regan, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Improvement, said:
“Cabinet noted the council’s financial position relating to the 2025 to 2026 budget, which showed we were able to save around £2.66 million compared to what we originally planned. Most of the variances in the budget are relatively small. The most significant factor was that not all of the corporate contingency budget, which was prudently set aside to cover unforeseen costs, was required. The resulted in an underspend of £2.39 million, which equates to 90% of the total budget variance.
“While we have managed to achieve an underspend, we need that money for this year’s budget and future budgets as our costs are rising, demand for services is rising and we’re getting less money from government in grants to pay for things. The £2.66 million will go into the council’s savings to help protect and pay for vital services that our residents need now and in the future.”
Cabinet also reviewed the council’s final capital budget for 2025 to 2026. This budget pays for projects that create or improve ‘assets’. This could be buildings or other assets like roads, bridges or pavements. The capital budget was also underspent with £45.329 million being carried forward to this year’s budget. This will make sure that big projects can be completed in the years ahead, including:
- the new Warfield Community Hub
- the demolition of High Street car park
- the new social, emotional and mental health school in Warfield
- expanding the cemetery at Easthampstead Park Cemetery and Crematorium
