Funding our future: Budget Consultation 2026/27

Overview

Welcome to our budget consultation. Your responses will help us set the budget for the next financial year. 

Foreword

Westmorland and Furness Council is now in its third year of delivering many of your essential local services – from waste collection and recycling to social care, education, roads maintenance, planning and so much more.

Becoming a new unitary council in 2023 has given us the opportunity to think and do things differently, challenge and maximise efficiency and effectiveness and it has given us a platform from which to develop and deliver on the Westmorland and Furness Council Plan in a Westmorland and Furness Way.

We aim to put our communities at the heart of everything we do, providing effective services to residents and businesses and deliver on our vision to be “A great place to live, work and thrive”.

Our priority since 2023 has been to get the basics right and do the basics well - so that we can set the necessary foundations to then drive through change and improvements and efficiencies and work as one team.

The need to change, transform and find efficiencies is our top priority.

For the last two years, in order to achieve a balanced budget, we have successfully delivered a range of savings. We now need to accelerate this further to cover any potential loss of funding and anticipated budget gap.

We have a responsibility to be financially sustainable but with growing pressures from demand and legislative changes led by Government, this is becoming even harder to achieve.

Government expects us to raise Council Tax by 4.99% but even with this, we are now looking at making tough choices including making proposed increases to fees and charges that we would have preferred to avoid. We will also be seeking efficiencies and savings across all services arising from the need to continually improve, adopt new technologies, transform and re-shape the Council to ensure we can deliver effective services that make a difference.

We are therefore seeking your views on a proposed Council Tax increase of 4.99% for 2026/27 alongside some other saving and income generating proposals.

Please take the time to carefully consider this year’s budget consultation and let us have your views.

Your voice matters!

Cllr Andrew Jarvis
Deputy Leader and Finance Portfolio Holder

Why your views matter

We welcome comments and views on the proposals. 

Your feedback to this consultation will be presented to the Westmorland and Furness Cabinet and Council in February 2026 for a final decision.

Please submit your response by 16 January 2026.

The full consultation booklet is available to view in the 'Related Document' link at the bottom of this page.