Thanet council’s Cabinet members are set to consider a draft budget of £30.5 million for the 2026/27 financial year – but warns that finances remain ‘severely challenged.’
The council has benefited overall from changes to government funding introduced through the Fair Funding Review in the provisional settlement for the next three years, as well as £2.1 million in recurring savings following a revaluation of the pension fund.
However, Thanet’s resources remain under pressure from costs for temporary accommodation and housing benefit subsidy, which have substantially contributed to significant overspends in 2024-25 and 2025-26.
In December immediate control measures were brought in at Thanet council in the light of “a significant General Fund overspend of £2.907 million.”
The forecast spend comes on top of a £4.7 million drawdown on reserves last year and was mainly driven by costs for homelessness, temporary accommodation and housing benefit shortfalls.
The budget proposals focus on improving financial stability by addressing systemic service pressures, while maintaining and improving frontline services, as well as investing in the district’s public realm.
A £21 million capital requirement to buy homelessness accommodation aims to continue to move the council away from the use of volatile, high-cost, nightly-paid private accommodation to a fixed-cost in-house model, as well as ending the need to place those affected locally outside the district.
Other key proposals include:
- Permanent funding for a second graffiti cleansing team following a successful trial this year which has seen more than 1,390 locations cleaned since April 2025.
- An allocation of £180,000 for one-off investments in the public realm and other local priorities for Cabinet to propose.
- Provision of £125,000 to support the extended period for beach and coastal toilet cleaning.
- New posts to meet mandatory duties under the Renters’ Rights Act and the Building Safety Act, projected to be self-financing through grants and levies.
- A capital allocation of £180,000 to resurface Ramsgate’s East Cliff promenade.
Council Tax and Fees
The draft budget assumes a Council Tax increase of just under 3%, which is the maximum permissible without a referendum. This would result in an £8.10 increase per year for a Band D equivalent property.
Fees and charges are also proposed to increase by a typical 4%, with a projected income growth of £153,000 for the financial year.
Council Leader, Cllr Rick Everitt,said: “These draft proposals represent our commitment to placing Thanet on a sustainable financial footing while continuing to deliver the services our residents value most.
“We are facing significant demand-led pressures, particularly in temporary accommodation, so this strategy focuses on ‘investing to save’ and addressing structural deficits to protect the council’s financial viability ahead of Local Government Reorganisation expected in 2028.
“Unlike council housing, which is ring-fenced financially and funded by rent and grants, temporary accommodation costs affect the resources we have to deliver other services.
“By investing in our own properties, we can deliver a better service for the residents affected as well as saving money overall.
“It is important to stress that the budget is currently a set of proposals, not a done deal. We have worked hard to identify savings, such as those from the pension fund revaluation, to ensure we can still propose improvements to the public realm, including making our second graffiti removal team permanent.
“I look forward to the Cabinet’s discussion next week and, crucially, to hearing from our residents. We will be launching a public consultation immediately after the meeting to ensure local people can provide their feedback before any final decisions are made by the Full Council in February.”
Survey
Following the Cabinet meeting, a budget survey will launch on the council’s Your Voice Thanet site. This will give people the opportunity to provide feedback and views on the proposals before the budget is finalised.
The reports being considered by Cabinet on Thursday 22 January are now available on the council’s website.
The draft proposals will then be reviewed by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel on Tuesday 3 February.
Recommendations will then return to Cabinet on Tuesday 17 February, before the final budget and Council Tax level are set at the Full Council meeting on Thursday 26 February.
when you have a council led by what are basicaly idiots, you come to expect this sort of thing , but those on the council know where they are well off
£8 million of overspend in the last two years and now hiking Council Tax up to the maximum level possible. At the same time as making sure that non working benefit claimants now don’t have to contribute any Council Tax so the emphasis falls on workers and pensioners not on Pension Credit. Good to see they’ve found £1.5m for staff pay rises though.
Never trust the Labour / Welfare Party with public money. It always ends up like this.
Has the decision been made to throw even more money (and provide even more of an incentive to decide not to be self reliant) at those on benefits? I’d seen that the idea was to be discussed but not that it’d been given the go ahead. If so where’s the money coming from?
The Labour Cabinet approved it in November 2025. So from April, non working benefit claimants won’t have to pay any Council Tax and the burden of paying the shortfall caused will fall on working people. For those benefit claimants who have lots of kids this is a golden age as the national Welfare Party have recently increased their benefits as well.
Another kick in the teeth to those who are working hard and having their income eroded under the Welfare Party.
Thanks you, no wonder a life on benefits is so popular. Over the course of the tax allowances freeze, benefitsmwill still be index linked and expected to have increased by around 50% by,the time the freeze is meant to be over. Don’t expect my tax free allowance will jump 50% then.
Quite how deep are our pockets thought to be? I know a benefit dependant person that’s paying back a loan for cosmetic surgery at £500 a month, not too sure why they are deemed to be worthy of so much of the taxpayers largesse.
I often find it curious that the most popular shops in “deprived” areas seem to be tattooists, beauty parlours and takeaways!
How can anyone have confidence in councillors who are not aware of massive overspends until suddenly presented to the. Waste services over spend a classic example of poor management from all involved with no one falling on their sword. The situation is so typical of Labour Party at all levels unable to exercise monetary control. History repeating itself and they have become unelectable at all levels again!
The graffiti proposal in particular appears oxymoronic, given the Authority’s penchant for encouraging street artists.
That’s what I was thinking!
How do you guarantee your job, think about it :P
The graffiti can wait. Fund road sweepers!!! Margate and Ramsgate in particular need a damn good clean-up. There are only 2 sweepers at a time covering the whole of Margate alone. I know this because one of them told me. Community Payback can remove graffiti for nothing!
Haven’t seen a sweeper (as opposed to a mere little-picker) for years in Birchington. The whole of Thanet is filthy, and TDC are to blame!
Peter- don’t forget the litter picker in Birchington is a private individual keeping Birchington streets clear of litter, and a brilliant job he does.
That’s true, and we’re all very grateful. But it’s no substitute for what we pay our council taxes for.
I think people should stop using the absurd exaggerations. “The whole of Thanet is filthy” is an example.
When’s the last time bus shelters in Thanet were cleaned? We spent a week in Douglas on the Isle of Man a couple of years ago, and every morning bus stops would be hosed down. That’s just one random example of somewhere that has moved into the 21st century. Thanet is Medieval in comparison!
The only sweeper I ever saw used to hide his barrow in an adjoining alley to my work and disappear for hours.
Typical TDC employee… useless, clock-watching jobsworths with no supervision ever.
Lads it is £8.10 extra per year,I think you are a bit over the top.I would however like to hear your proposals, a DOLGE perhaps?
From what I can make out, none of you are paupers, so give it a rest!
PC the Tory party is disappearing before your very eyes,but look at it this way, all the nutters and fruit cakes are jumping ship to Reform, so perhaps when Badenoch and a few other looney tunes do the same, the good ship Conservative may right itself, who knows!
Nutters and fruit cakes? That translates as decent hard-working patriots who don’t agree with your tory viewpoint.
Tory: forget the referendum, we’re going to screw the country over Brexit by capitulating to the EU’s every whim because the EU is who they think will line their pockets best.
Just like Labour who will add capitulation to China to the agenda.
The streets outside schools during term time become littered by parents who also ignore the yellow lines and park half on half off the pavement causing traffic problems. How about traffic wardens patrols in these areas, the fines would more than pay wages. Also why not have parking on one side of the roads alternating weekly so that the gutter cleaner can do its job.
Fat people in fat cars collecting their fats kids.
Also dogs mess outside schools. The parents at Drapers Mills allow their dogs to poo all over the footpath. When I brought them up on this, they claimed not to speak English. What does the Dog Warden actually do?
“Jess the Best”- What languages did the parents speak in? Did you understand all of them?
When I went to a pub in Rhyl last year, some of the clientele made out that the didn’t speak English, and were chatting about us in a non-complimntary way. Fortunately, we’d all learnt to say Bye-Bye in Welsh (Hwyl Fawr, pronounced Will Fowl) – you should’ve seen the look on their faces as we left!
I’ve visited many parts of Wales over the years, from the Gower to the Llŷn Peninsular, from the summit of Snowdon to the depths of the valleys.
I’ve enjoyed the hospitality of many pubs in cities, towns and villages.
I’ve heard Welsh people speaking Welsh, and Welsh people speaking English.
I’ve always been met with civility and politeness wherever I’ve been.
It’s not at all strange that Welsh speakers, in their own country,should be using their native tongue to converse with each other.
Why should they “pretend” that they couldn’t speak English? Would you expect a French person, in a French bar, to speak in English just because you showed up?
And what on Earth had you done to these locals to so upset them that they were moved to make non-complimentary comments about you?
(You really don’t need to answer that question. Your many postings on here are a pretty good indicator.)
I’ve no idea why they “pretended”, but as I asked the way to the toilet and they replied in Welsh, I’ve no idea. Perhaps thy don’t like smart looking people in designer clothes drinking diet cokes, I don’t know.
Oh, and I said I like airports (joke).
It’s £8.10 per annum, lads.But of course this is not a Reform council where all sins are forgiven, even if they are based on fairy stories and downright lies.
Sometimes I want all of you to get your just desserts and to drop us into a Putin loving dystopia of your own making, but then I look at Brexit and Trump and ask myself is it right to inflict more pain on the widows and orphans of the UK, just because some silly old men chunter on all day.
You’re a prime example of silly old men chuntering, George. Try to show a little more positivity once in a while.
Very well said
Mr Nokes – what are you rambling on about!
I love the “it’s only £x per year” argument. Add that to KCC, PCC, Kent Fire and Rescue, Town Councils saying “it’s only £x per year”.
Then add that to the energy companies, water companies, broadband providers, supermarkets, insurance companies also telling people their bills will be going up “but only by £x a year”.
Don’t like the Royal Family ? Well they only cost you £x per year. The argument is wearing thin.
The wage of the working person is being picked at and eroded from all angles. We can now add Council Tax to all the other bills that non working benefit claimants don’t have to pay (or pay significantly less) but workers have to make up the shortfall. See also “social tariffs” for broadband, water, energy, school holidays clubs etc. It’s everyone else who subsidises these.
That’s £8.10 per annum per household. If any household gets any amount of Council Tax Benefit that benefit like any other benefits are covered by the rest of us through general taxation. So, it’s not quite as simple as, just “£8.10 per annum”. For some it’s less. For the majority it’s more.
Reform lies?
What about Labour’s last manifesto?
What about Johnson and May who wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them in the backside (Oh, sorry it did at the last election).
Let’s face it most of these councillors are that bent they can’t lay in bed straight,most of them couldn’t run a bath, all that money wasted in the past on the likes of homer waite and company that topped over a million pounds,
TDC… Thanet District Circus, home of the clowns.
And they all (councillors) get tarted up in their best frocks to pretend to be local dignitaries at any and every opportunity. And all the time the public are sneering or laughing at them.
“And they all (councillors) get tarted up in their best frocks”… and that’s just the blokes!