Council Budget 2026-27

Every year, the Council sets its general fund revenue budget and capital programme. We are legally required to set a balanced budget, ensuring that the money we spend does not exceed the income we receive from government grants, Council Tax, business rates, and charges for services we provide.

Over the next 4 years we are expecting funding from government to decrease significantly due to the Government's Fair Funding review, which will change the way each council’s grant funding is calculated, and also a reset of the business rates system. On top of this, the costs of delivering our services continue to rise from increasing needs and rising inflation. We will not know what level of funding we are receiving from the Government in 26/27 until mid to late December.

The consultation draft budget is based on a zero percent increase in council tax for Wealden’s element of Council Tax, this would mean Wealden’s council tax would remain at £221.14 for the average band D property.

The consultation includes a balanced budget for 2026/27 for the Council's general fund and was presented to Cabinet on 3rd December 2025. 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. In addition, this year, there has been a Budget Scrutiny Working Group who have been meeting to discuss and review the budget proposals. The draft budget is presented alongside the 4-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.

As residents and stakeholders may be aware, Central Government are currently consulting on Local Government Reorganisation across the country, including East Sussex and Brighton and Hove. Based on current timelines the new unitary/ies, in whatever format is agreed by government, would come into place on 1st April 2028, part way through this MTFS period.

The Council would like your views on how the council 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 2026/27, we have launched a survey.

It is open to residents, businesses and organisations within the district and the results will be used, alongside other evidence, to inform the next stage in the budget processes and by councillors as they set the budget and council tax for 2026/27.

Council Tax

To put the Council tax figures into context, Wealden District Council collects council tax on behalf of the County Council, Police and Fire Service, as well as its own. For the 2025/26 financial year, it only keeps around 8p in every pound collected (around £4.25 a week or £221.14 a 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 (72p), 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).

Survey closes 9th January 2026.