Council Budget 2025-26

Every year, the Council sets its general fund revenue budget and capital programme. The annual budget must balance the money we spend with the money we are expecting to receive. The consultation draft budget presents a balanced budget for 2025/26 for the Council's general fund and was presented to Cabinet on 11th December 2024.This has been achieved through a rigorous budget setting process involving all budget holders, Heads of Service, Corporate Management Team, Cabinet members and the Finance Team. The draft budget is presented alongside the 5-year Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). There are challenges in the future with savings/ income generation targets being required to balance the Council’s budget from 2027/28 onwards. This will require services to carefully manage their spending pressures as well as looking at opportunities to generate additional income or deliver services differently. This is set against future uncertainty of government funding, particularly around business rates.

The council would like your views on how it spends its money, how it could raise more money and the level at which it should set the council tax next year.

We provide many services including waste collection, environmental health, council housing, planning and building control. To help shape our budget for 2025/26, we have launched a survey.

It is open to residents, businesses and organisations within the Wealden district and will be used, alongside other evidence, to inform next year’s budget proposals. The information from this survey will be used to inform the next stage in the budget processes and by councillors as they set the budget and council tax for 2025/26.

To put the Council tax figures into context, although Wealden District Council collects council tax on behalf of the County Council, Police and Fire Service, as well as its own, it only keeps around 9p in every pound collected (around £4.13p a week or £214.72a year for an average Band D property) to deliver services. The vast majority of your council tax collected by the district council goes to East Sussex County Council (71p), Wealden Police and Crime Commissioner (10p) and East Sussex Combined Fire Authority (5p), with the remainder going to the 42 parish and town councils across the district (average 5p).

The consultation closes on the 10th of January 2025.