Draft budget proposals for the 2026/27 financial year that respond to increasing service demand and set out the need for continued government support, will be considered by the Royal Borough’s Cabinet on Tuesday 16 December.

Despite the significant action taken since 2023 to get the financial situation under control, by making savings, transforming services, generating income, and strengthening governance – it is clear the council will need further government support to set a balanced budget and deliver the services residents need.

The Royal Borough’s low level of council tax, and high levels of debt, combined with changes to the way government allocate funding to councils following their Fair Funding Review, has resulted in the council not having the financial resilience to meet the increasing demand for key services.

This is despite the 8.99% increase in council tax this year, which still left Royal Borough’s bills among the lowest in the country – with a Band D property almost £500 a year below the national average.

Given the scale of the £51m budget gap, and despite £6m savings from transforming services, it’s clear the council will need to maximise any increase in council tax that can be agreed with government for 2026/27.

This follows the government indicating they will consider council tax flexibility for local authorities facing significant financial difficulty, given their recently announced formula for distributing central government funding assumes councils are charging the national average for council tax.

The council would also look to build in funding to provide support for the borough’s most vulnerable residents, to protect them from any additional council tax increase.

To rectify historic budget issues and respond to increases in demand-led pressures - the draft budget also includes proposed increased spending of £14m – including:

Adult social care: additional funding of £3.35m to support people to remain in their own homes and live a safe and independent life for as long as possible
Children’s services: to meet rising demand and costs of care placements – an additional amount of £5.65m will be invested
Housing and temporary accommodation: an additional £1.88m funding to meet rising demand and costs, and transform housing services
Maintenance budget boost: £1.17m aimed at improving borough parks, carparks, council owned buildings and other areas in need of repair
Council Leader, Cllr Simon Werner said: “It’s clear that we are still paying the price for the financial recklessness of the past and we’ll need to continue to make tough decisions alongside securing additional support from government - to fix the mess we inherited and set a balanced budget.

“While we’re continuing to make significant savings and transform services, this is not a budget of cuts - our plans ensure resident facing services including our libraries, family centres and leisure services will continue to be delivered.

“We’re also putting money back into the services that matter to our residents, including increasing maintenance budgets which were stripped out in the past to improve our parks and car parks.”

The council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Lynne Jones said: “Our draft budget proposes an increase in spending to deliver the services residents need – helping to repair the damage from years of underfunding.

“On top of our extremely low levels of our council tax income, the changes to how government allocate grant funding will see the Royal Borough as one of the biggest losers nationally - yet we are experiencing the same increasing service demand pressures as other areas.

“By severely reducing our funding government has torn apart our medium-term plan for financial recovery and forced us into a position where there is no choice but to turn to them for significant support - to enable the council to continue to be financially viable and deliver the services our residents deserve.”

The draft budget also addresses actions within the council’s Financial Improvement and Sustainability Plan and is presented to Cabinet alongside a ‘one year on’ report - demonstrating the significant progress made in the councils’ improvement journey around five themes which aim to improve governance, control expenditure, reduce cost, prioritise resources, maximise value and better utilise the council’s asset base.

Following the Cabinet meeting, the proposals will be subject to public consultation, with results reported to Cabinet in February 2026 - ahead of the final budget, including the outcome discussions with government on support, being put to Council for approval in March 2026.

It’s something of a bleak moment for RBWM as it releases its draft budget while staring down the barrel of a potential loss of £29million in Government funding.

The draft 2026/27 budget is out – but the path ahead is far from clear, in light of the Government’s Fair Funding Review, which seeks to redistribute funds from affluent areas to deprived ones.

Councillor Lynne Jones, RBWM’s cabinet member for finance, has been vocal on her feelings about this – believing that it will leave RBWM in an untenable position.

Current modelling suggests RBWM could be £29million worse off under this change, though the actual settlement won’t be known until close to Christmas.

Cllr Jones said RBWM had a medium-term plan that got it back into a viable position – and this review has ‘completely thrown that out.’

“We are seeing really strong performances across all our services, our targets are being met, officers are really stepping up,” she said.

“We’ve done everything; we have a voluntary financial board, we have a senior government commissioner who gave us a glowing report – and then this happens.

“Central Government have just thrown this grenade and blown the whole thing apart.

“I’m just so disappointed that there has been absolutely no acknowledgement of the situation we took over.”

She is referring to historically low council tax, which means that even the affluent borough has less money to work with – something Cllr Jones feels the Government has not accounted for.


Cllr Simon Werner, council leader, added: “Lynne [previously] described it as a kick in the teeth and it really is.

“On the one hand they’re saying, ‘You’re a good council – you provide low-cost services, you’re doing everything you can to get out of the situation,’ then on the other hand they’re saying, ‘But we’re going to take away another £30million of your funding.’

“I feel we’re back to square one,” he said.

RBWM will need Exceptional Financial Support from Government again – but this is just a loan, which means the council will need to ‘borrow [more] to repay the borrowing costs.’

“It’s just ridiculous, the whole thing,” said Cllr Jones.

Cllr Werner agreed, saying: “The whole model of local government finance is broken.”

Impact on the budget

The deputy leader said there won’t be cuts to services because RBWM simply ‘can’t’.

“We’re too lean already, everything has already been cut,” said Cllr Jones. “Any significant cuts would impact our statutory services that we are legally obliged to [provide].”

Rather, the draft budget includes proposed increased spending of £14million, including:

Adult social care: additional funding of £3.35million to support people to remain in their own homes and live a safe and independent life for as long as possible
Children’s services: an additional amount of £5.65million will be invested to meet rising demand and costs of care placements
Housing and temporary accommodation: an additional £1.88million funding to meet rising demand and costs, and transform housing services
Maintenance budget boost: £1.17million aimed at improving borough parks, car parks, council owned buildings and other areas in need of repair.
“My number one complaint is that the verges and cemeteries aren’t being cut, so it’s absolutely vital we get that service back again,” said Cllr Werner.

“We want the Borough to look gorgeous. It’s in a fantastic position just outside London but in the countryside, it’s got an amazing set of schools – we just need to make sure the final piece of that jigsaw gets put in.

“Residents need to [be able to feel] that pride in where they’re living.”

Council tax

As for the burning question – how much council tax will go up by – the answer is unclear.

The most council tax can be raised by per year without permission from Government or a local referendum is 4.99 per cent.

Cllr Jones said that the council’s 8.99 per cent council tax rise last year was ‘equivalent in monetary terms’ to what other councils would get from raising it by 4.99 per cent.

RBWM says it is ‘clear the council will need to maximise any increase in council tax that can be agreed with Government’.

But the Fair Funding news has created much uncertainty.

“We just don’t know any more,” said Cllr Jones. “There’s no way we can make this budget final without significant support from the Government.”

Budget papers, which detail the council’s proposed expenditures and savings, were released on Monday (December 8) and will be considered by the cabinet on Tuesday, December 16.

Responding to concerns over the Fair Funding Review, previously a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson said:

“We have made £69billion available for council finance, including £129.6million for Windsor and Maidenhead, and are making sure that cash going to councils is shared out in a fairer way that reflects their needs.

“We will fix the outdated and unfair funding system we inherited through the upcoming multi-year Settlement so that councils can deliver better public services.”