Budget consultation 2025-26
Have your say on our budget
In this consultation we are seeking your views on our budget proposals for 2025/26, based on what we know now about our financial situation.
They contain £14.1 million of money to meet financial pressures caused by factors such as population growth, inflation etc., £5.4m of new investments and £17.9m of savings.
However, we still have a budget shortfall. In October, the county council’s cabinet received an early budget report saying the authority has a £13.9 million shortfall for 2025/26. This means we will face tough choices to save money or increase funding to make up this shortfall.
Like other councils in England, we are waiting for grant funding information from government. Funding will not be known until December when the government will issue the draft financial settlement for local government with specific detail for individual councils. Further financial information will then be received as winter progresses.
Council services and demand
We all need and use council services, and Oxfordshire County Council provides 80 per cent of local government services in the county by expenditure. This includes adult and children’s social care, some education services, fire and rescue, libraries and museums, roads, trading standards, waste disposal and recycling.
We know that many households across our county are continuing to struggle because of the cost of living crisis. The county council is also continuing to face financial pressures and uncertainties as the cost of providing our services is now higher as the result of increases in costs. There is also increased demand for our services, particularly for children’s and adults’ social care, and for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
While children’s and adults’ social care services make up over half our budget, we have a statutory duty to provide them, so savings have to come from elsewhere. We have already made £96.9m in savings over the last five years so it is getting more difficult to find ways to reduce our expenditure.
Have your say
Please use our online feedback form to share your views.
Before commenting, we encourage you to read the budget report and accompanying budget proposals annexes prepared for our Performance and Corporate Services Overview Scrutiny Committee (item 5). We have also prepared a summary document highlighting key new investments, pressures and savings, which you may find helpful.
The budget proposals are set out in annex 1b, with a section for each of the following service areas:
- adults
- children
- environment and highways
- economy and place
- public health and communities
- fire and rescue and community safety
- resources, and law and governance
- transformation, digital and customer experience.
- cross cutting proposals
- budgets held centrally
Your views matter
Public engagement is an important part of the democratic process and residents’ feedback has already been used to shape the budget proposals we are consulting on. This includes feedback from the council’s annual residents’ survey and our online budget simulator, which both also sought views on council tax levels. The outcomes from these exercises was included in the budget and business planning report to cabinet on 15 October 2024.
We will listen carefully to what you have to say in this consultation. Your feedback will be included in a report going to cabinet in January 2025. The council’s budget, including the council tax level, will be decided at a meeting with all county councillors on 11 February 2025.
