RBWM approves budget with plans for council tax increase to overtake debt

Councillors admitted the Royal Borough’s budget will be ‘very, very painful for residents’ as it was approved last night – including a 7.49 per cent council tax increase.

A full council meeting yesterday (Tuesday) heard that the 2026/27 budget is ‘not a budget that deserves celebration’, but it is a ‘survival plan’.

The already cash-strapped Royal Borough has faced increased financial pressure because of the Government’s Fair Funding Review 2.0, intended to direct more money towards deprived areas across the country.

The authority says it will lose out on £30million because of this, on top of the challenges it faces caused by historically low council tax.

To cope with this, the Government gave the Royal Borough permission to increase its council tax by 7.49 per cent from April, above the national threshold.

It has also been allowed to raise council tax above the 4.99 per cent threshold for the following two financial years without a referendum – potentially leading to a 10 per cent increase next year, according to budget papers.

These increases, which follow an 8.99 per cent rise last year, have been met with a backlash.

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition protesting against the increase since last week, and an attempt by independent councillor Wisdom Da Costa (Clewer and Dedworth West)  to amend the budget and trigger a council tax referendum was rejected at last night’s meeting.

Presenting the budget at the meeting, Councillor Lynne Jones, the lead member for finance, said: “We now need to look ahead. We know how we got here; we know what went wrong historically, but our focus is on the future. Everyone’s should be.

“We need to be one voice, to put pressure on Government to look again at this irresponsible decision so we can have a financially sustainable council without being forced to inflict on our residents a council tax increase to reach the national average over just two years.”

Cllr Jones reassured councillors that additional funding of £500,000 is set aside to help the borough’s most vulnerable residents cope with the pressure of a council tax increase.

Liberal Democrats backed the finance lead’s plans.

Cllr Richard Coe (Lib Dem, Riverside) said: “Rolling forward, this administration hasn’t fixed that deficit yet, but what we have done is bring it out into the light of day so that we can talk about it and people know about it.

“We put in place a plan to balance that budget over the medium-term, but that plan has been torpedoed by the Labour Government coming back to steal £29million every year from this council within two to three years.

“The only way to break that spiral is for council tax to overtake it, and that is very, very painful for residents, and we recognise that.”

But opposition members raised concerns about the ‘significant burden’ these council tax increases will put on residents and future generations.

Cllr Sally Coneron (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) said: “This budget condemns our children and children’s children to paying back your debt and that’s a fact.

“This budget is technically balanced, but only because the council has been given Government permission to borrow money to pay for day-to-day services, and that is not a sustainable long-term position.

She said ‘no magic wand will appear’ to write the council’s debt off, with budgets set in future years needing to repay the debt, with interest.

The budget papers include plans for £48.75million of Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) in 2026/27 – borrowing used to fund day-to-day services.

Cllr Da Costa highlighted the petition from resident Andrew Hill, which asked councillors to either vote against the budget or change the council tax increase from 7.49 per cent to 7.5 per cent  – meaning a referendum would be triggered.

Mr Hill was not permitted to speak at the council meeting.

Cllr Da Costa asked that residents’ concerns be heard and put forward an amendment in line with what Mr Hill’s petition was requesting.

“This will trigger a referendum so residents can decide if they agree to this deal with the devil or whether we should protest to Government in the very strongest terms,” he said.

But his amendment was refused because any proposed changes to the budget papers should have been put forward before the full council meeting, Cllr Sian Martin, the Royal Borough’s deputy mayor, explained.

Cllr Martin (Lib Dem, Belmont) said: “We’ve already requested that [Mr Hill] wouldn’t speak. There are reasons for that.

“The main reason Cllr Da Costa [is] that [the petition] was not put through the council’s own petition [page].”

Addressing the meeting from the public gallery, Mr Hill said ‘you wouldn’t let me’.