By Local democracy reporter Simon Finlay
Kent County Council is calling on residents for suggestions on how its cash will be spent in the coming year.
KCC says it faces a budget shortfall of £50m for the 2026-27 period and has warned “difficult money-saving decisions will be necessary”.
But opposition councillors believe that figure could be much higher.
KCC, which is in financial peril because of years of squeezed funding and soaring costs, must set a balanced budget by law.
The authority wants to hear from Kent residents about which services they wish to protect, how savings can be made and suggestions how it can generate more income as part of its consultation exercise.
As the country’s largest local authority with a population of 1.6m, excluding Medway, it receives around £2.6bn with a net income of £1.4bn.
KCC’s revenues come from council tax receipts, business rates, government grants and services the council can charge for.
But essential services, many of them statutory, account for 80% of the day-to-day spending. Areas such as adult social care, children’s services, transport and highways consume much of the council’s available cash.
The council has been trying to find ways of reducing high-spend areas, such as the near £100m bill for special needs pupils’ home-to-school transport, to drive down overall costs.
The previous Conservative administration warned many times the income does not match its outgoings, especially since adult social care bills continue to rise each year.
The council will also have to factor in deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s local government reorganisation, which will see all 14 Kent councils, including KCC, abolish themselves and be replaced by a much smaller number of larger unitary authorities within an estimated three-year timescale.
Financial stability
A KCC statement said: “Supporting the county’s most vulnerable people is the biggest pressure, and the cost of providing children’s services and community, residential and nursing care for older people and vulnerable adults remains high and is expected to grow further.”
KCC deputy leader Cllr Brian Collins (Reform) said: “Our priority is to achieve financial stability.
“Our Department for Local Government Efficiency (DOLGE) has been working since day one in May, and rest assured every nook and cranny is being investigated to identify areas of waste and where we can do things differently to ensure the council continues to work in the best interests of the residents of Kent.
“So far we have seen a new approach to potholes and a review of home-to-school transport bills, rethinking the net zero renewable energy programme and the electric vehicle fleet, stopping unnecessary memberships and subscriptions and bringing children’s home care in-house. This work continues at pace.”
Larger deficit?
Conservative former deputy finance cabinet member Cllr Harry Rayner said: “I suspect the £50m shortfall mentioned by the new administration would appear, to me, to be on the low side. It will face the same difficulties we faced and that councils are facing all over the country.”
Liberal Democrat opposition group leader Antony Hook said: “I would like to see the detail on paper how they have come to that figure, as there may be other factors to consider, such as the £20m overspend in education.
“The Chancellor [Rachel Reeves] won’t be letting us know until the autumn what the final settlement for Kent’s funding will be. There may be a lot of wishful thinking in the £50m calculation.”
The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) said the government may come back with a multi-year settlement, which councils have been calling for, and allow greater certainty and scope for financial planning.
Consultation
Residents’ responses to the consultation will be considered by county councillors at the cabinet committee meetings before the budget proposals are finalised and considered for approval by the county council in February 2026.
To get involved visit: www.kent.gov.uk/budget
Strange-Nigel was only the other day boasting about all the money Reform have saved councils since the elections & even trying to claim credit for the 16 million of savings that had been made before the election.
Anybody would think he is a lying sack of you know what & that Reform are a bunch of useless race grifters like him.
1) Lower the Ukraine flag.
2) Send in DOGE.
3) Err…
Every year KCC ask residents to volunteer how they want their services cut or their costs put up. Weren’t DOLGE supposed to solve this problem? New name. No reform. No change. Give it back to one of the other two. At least they know how it should work.
Eileen – you jest!
£20 million over spend on education
Maybe it’s about time they got rid of the academies. Waste of money and the heads of these schools are on extortionate wages £170-240.0000 whilst the teachers are on low pay + these schools can make their own rules up to thwart parents at every turn when they face SEN challenges and bullying.
Another labour idea under tony Blair
Academies Act Introduced by Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education
I expect the overspend is SEND for which there is no explanation about why it has increased, but hey, when you want to have a pop against academies and Tony Blair, why bother about analysis and data.
Fed up still thinks Nigel Farage is a guru.He is a guru, of chaos, like his chum in the US.
No Reform have no idea just sound bites of nonsense.
George Nokes – your utterngs get more bizarre.
George Nokes – you’re right about Nigel Farage , who is only really interested in how much money he can make.
List all the good things George that labour have done since they got in ?
Also starmer trying his luck with 16 year olds to vote.
16 year olds that kill harm or maim can’t be named and shamed.but under starmers plans can vote, who’s the loony again.
List ALL the good things Labour have done?
List ONE thing that Labour have done… other than inviting 50,000 migrants to come here and ponce off the UK, crippled the economy, lost 200,000 jobs, put another million on never ending welfare-for-life, lied about their qualifications, humiliated the UK in the eyes of the world, appointing a prime minister who thinks ladies can have a penis, a sink-estate slapper with No educational qualifications to the deputy prime ministers job, covering up the rape gangs, promoting industrial strength anti-semitism…. need I go on?
Let’s hope they don’t waste monies on unnecessary and unwanted road schemes. That includes widespread 20mph zones that mostly do nothing for road safety only serving a political agenda. 20mph has a place, but as we see in Wales & London the way it has been over implemented, is highly unpopular and unfortunately often ignored.
The more 20mph zones the better! And the more buses there are, the better.
Got rid of NHS England,put more cash into buses,started devolution,got a better deal from Trump.
Not enough I grant you,but better than the previous 14 years.Not being mad and trashing the economy is also helpful.
I too find Labour disappointing, but I struggle to see anything Reform might do as better.As for 16 year olds voting, the self same things were said about the working class and women. 16 year old are not named in order to give them some kind of future, but as some youngsters are becoming increasingly violent this restriction is being removed on a case by case basis. Unfortunately,being old does not confer wisdom on an individual because if that was so Brexit would never have happened and Nigel Farage woukd have been confined to the dustbin of history long ago.
I think your tone is unnecessarily abusive.Starmer may be boring but he is not a looney as you call him.You don’t make a case by adopting unpleasant names.
As you are so dissatisfied what is your solution to turn the country around and don’t mention immigrants because they did wreck the water industry,public transport ,or the banking and finance sector, we did that all on our own.
I think you’ll find stagecoach are in trouble if you look at their new prices and tickets no return journey tickets and as for NHS England being dissolved it has cost NHS staff jobs in our local hospitals and London
You talk nonsense.dont moan when there are no staff to treat you.
Good old starmer!! Sir prat! Go and cry yourself to sleep if you don’t like starmer being criticised.
You talk rubbish George 16 year olds are old enough to kill they should be named and shamed!!
You sound like a do-gooder who would favour the attacker with compassion or kindness, you won’t get in to heaven any quicker mate!
Farage is the 2nd coming! We will follow!
Better a do-gooder,than a do-badder and a racist.The immigrants you bang on about want to work and not to ‘ponce on the state’ as you call it, but because of the Fedups and others of his persuasion, Starmer thinks it a good idea to bang them up in hotels, so that racists can burn them down.
Contrary to what the key board warriors say here, I am not the least concerned about Starmer,but not agreeing with the geriatric racists here winds them up, which cheers me up no end.
But returning to the subject of Reform and KCC,for all their boasts they are in the same fix as their Tory predecessors. As KCC has a limited future,you could use the old trick of ‘raiding the balances’, but that will only work if the deficit really is £50m and not more as others believe.Raiding the balances will also leave the succeeding Unitaries with less cash,and bearing in mind Canterbury’s finances, some of the Districts will hand over a threadbare legacy.
Finally, I say again to those who carp at what I say, what are your solutions, because we hear loud and clear what you don’t like, but not what ideas you have beyond your hatred of migrants of all kinds.
George Nokes- keep at it, Mr. Nokes! Your comments are logical and reasonable.
😭😭😭 sounds like your cracking up George.
You should stand for election mate with all the other loonies!
Every time someone responds with abuse, we know they have no answers only slogans and excuses for populist. Boasting.
Sounds like you George a man who doesn’t have any answers!
Until the government say what KCC will receive no one knows what the deficit will be. Most county councils are running on air so any deficit will be hard to fill. Reform will find it as hard as any other recent leaderships. I think they will find some small savings here and there but none to fill the gap. The cost of sending children by taxi is always going to rise, drivers wages and fuel and car costs are always going to rise. I find the abuse here is rather distracting from the story as usual. Thats why I never respond to criticism. Reform will do its best as any council must. It wont be enough for anyone.