Harsh reality hits home as council faces difficult choices on council tax and service cuts

Last month I published details on these pages of a public consultation exercise launched by Durham County Council to gauge public opinion on its Cabinet's budget proposals: Durham County Council launches Budget & Council Tax consultation

The consultation is due to end on 15 November so time is running out if you want to have your say on how the council can balance the books for this year and beyond.

Last week I attended a meeting of the council's Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Management Board (COSMB) where finance officers gave an update on the Cabinet's proposals to make savings (cuts), introduce council tax rises or a combination of both. The options facing the Cabinet are quite stark and pose a significant headache for an administration that pledged during last year's election campaign to deploy their 'DOGE' apparatus to magic up millions of £s in waste, slash the pay of senior officers and produce a wealth of savings to pass on to residents and their communities. However, the reality of how local government finance actually works is now hitting home, leaving them in the unenviable position of delivering the election promises they knew they couldn't keep.

The headline figures set out at the meeting last Friday morning were included in an earlier report to Cabinet, and this made it clear that the council is facing a budget shortfall of a total £83.6m over the next 4 years, which is the period covered by its Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). It was reported that £21.5m of savings have already been identified, leaving a residual deficit of around £62m. The options open to the Cabinet to balance the books were also set out in the report.

Some of the potential 'savings' detailed in the Cabinet report are rather hard-hitting, and if introduced will cut deep into some of our most vital public-facing services. They include:

• A review of Household Waste Recycling Centres (skip sites), including potential closure
• Drastic reductions in the frequency of gully and drain clearing operations
• Reviews into pest control, waste collection, grounds maintenance and street cleaning operations
• A review of leisure services across the county, including potential closures of leisure centres
• A 'fundamental' review into library provision, with the potential closure of some branch libraries

Source: Cabinet Report 16.09.26 - Appendix 2 - MTFP17.pdf

The report in front of members at last week's COSMB meeting also highlighted the impact that Council Tax (CT) increases could have on reducing the deficit. If the Cabinet chose to increase CT by 2% the residual deficit would be reduced to £36m, a CT increase of 3% would see the deficit reduced to £23m and a maximum CT increase would eliminate the deficit and even produce a small surplus.

For my part I suggested at the meeting that the time was fast approaching when the council leadership would have to level with residents and come clean about the balance between council tax and service cuts. Promises to permanently reduce council tax levels are easy to make during a local election campaign, but anyone with even the most basic understanding of how local government finance works will know that the reality is not so simple. Even when central government hands out relatively generous finance settlements, as they did last year for the first time in decades (link below), they are predicated on maximum increases in council tax. 

Despite what the current administration will try to tell you it's always been like that, and whether we like it or not it's an integral part of the deal. However, it doesn't mean that council tax must rise by the maximum amount. The government doesn't set council tax - that is a decision to be made by the council itself based on its own options. This is the harsh reality. Something the administration either doesn't understand or they choose to ignore.

The council's consultation is live until 15 November 2026 and can be found in the link at the top of this article. Please make every effort to take a closer look at the Cabinet's options and proposals and let the council know how you feel about them.

To add context, and by way of background to the consultation, I've posted here a couple of links to articles relating to last year's local government finance settlement and the decisions made at the budget and council tax setting meeting held earlier this year:

Government hands Durham County Council a huge funding boost

Reform UK's broken promises on council tax, cuts and debt