Warwickshire County Council has approved its budget for 2026/27, alongside the medium-term financial strategy for the next five years.
The budget sets out the Council's commitment to protecting essential services, supporting council taxpayers with cost-of-living pressures and investing in key Council priorities against the backdrop of ongoing economic challenges.
In the Council meeting held on 17 February, Councillors approved the 2026/27 budget and the 2026-2031 medium-term financial strategy (MTFS). The medium-term financial strategy aims to maintain stable finances while ensuring Warwickshire continues to thrive.
The budget includes a 4.4% increase in Council Tax, including the 2% adult social care precept. This is lower than the maximum permitted increase of 4.99%, reflecting the Council’s wish to support residents with cost-of-living pressures. The medium-term financial strategy also sets out a programme of efficiency savings and investments to maintain the Council’s strong focus on prevention to help reduce future demand on services.
For a Band D property, the overall increase in the Council Tax bill will amount to an additional £1.56 per week.
Talking about the approved budget, Cllr George Finch, Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said:
“Since the initial meeting of Council earlier this month, we have received the Government’s final local government finance settlement. This contains the High Needs Stability Grant which must be put into reserves which will reduce the SEND deficit by 90%. As this was one of the pressures that we had to take into account when setting the previous budget, this has changed matters. We can now look to deliver what the people of Warwickshire need with some additional resource and we have added allocations, since that first meeting, into key areas for the county council.
“As Leader of Warwickshire County Council, I want to be clear that we have listened carefully to the people of Warwickshire. We understand what our residents expect from their county council and where their priorities lie. This budget, alongside our medium‑term financial strategy, has been shaped around those priorities as we work to deliver the greatest possible impact with the resources available to us.
“Decisions to increase Council Tax are never taken lightly. We must strike the right balance between protecting the vital services that support our most vulnerable residents and recognising the financial pressures facing households, particularly during a period of rising living costs. That is why we continue to focus on efficiencies within the council first, before asking our residents to contribute more.”
The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy includes significant investment over the next five years in key areas such as:
- Invest £37.8m to protect our elderly and vulnerable residents to fund additional demand and manage the cost of placements whilst continuing to make progress on our vision of greater integration between health and social care and the adult social care reform agenda.
- Directly invest £10.5m in our children’s social care services, including investment of £7.7m for the increased cost and demand for children’s placements.
- A further £2.5m will be allocated to children’s and adult social care in final service budgets to address growth in pressures during 2025/26.
- Invest £11.2m in home to school transport to resolve pressures from previous years and ensure we continue to provide services in line with our policy whilst being able to respond to the increasing demand and cost of the service, which has been particularly impacted by inflation and the growth in the number of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The £3.5m in revenue savings for 2026/27 from reduced borrowing for the SEND deficit is being reinvested in a range of services including
- Additional £0.180m budget allocation for gulley cleaning.
- Reprofiling the ‘Investment in Bespoke Adolescent Support in Nuneaton & Bedworth’ budget allocation to bring forward investment in 2026/27 as well as 2027/28.
- Increase in the ‘Provision for Future Pressures’ in years two - five to the recommended 1% of the Net Revenue Budget.
- Protecting youth grants and the pre-school autism diagnostic service.
- Additional £0.100m budget allocation for rural community support across the county.
Cllr Stephen Shaw, Warwickshire County Council’s Deputy Leader and portfolio holder for finance, said: “We have worked tremendously hard to maintain a strong and stable financial position. While many councils across the country are facing severe financial strain, we have managed our resources carefully and responsibly. We are in a good financial position today, but we are also realistic: although we have been able to reduce our SEND deficit, which has had a positive effect on our revenue, we know that adult social care costs will continue to rise unless we find a sustainable way of providing care for our most vulnerable residents.
“We have reluctantly increased council tax by 4.4%. To have imposed no increase, in the face of rising costs and inflation, would have placed additional financial pressure on the council that would ultimately have affected the services our residents rely upon.
“The budget has managed to maintain lower council tax increases than the maximum while mitigating significant risks relating to SEND deficits and the provision for future pressures. With our unrelenting focus on value for money we feel this budget gives local people the best deal we can.”
Delivering savings and improving efficiency
To ensure the budget remains sustainable, the Council has committed to £27.6 million in budget reductions for 2026/27, increasing to £99.9 million by 2031. These savings will be achieved through improved procurement, better efficiency, increased income, and delivering reductions in demand.
For more information, including access to the webcast of the full Council meeting, visit: https://warwickshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/home