How your money is spent
We have set our budget for the next financial year (2025 to 2026). The budget ensures that we can continue to:
- deliver services that support residents most in need
- enhance our local communities
- improve people's everyday lives
With costs of delivering services rising faster than the council's income, a combination of efficiency savings and an increase in Council Tax rate is needed to ensure a balanced budget.
The budget proposals were approved at a Full Council meeting on Tuesday 4 February 2025.
Emphasising the importance of the budget, Council Leader Tim Oliver, said:
"This is public money we are responsible for, which makes it even more vital that we take care of every single penny.
"I recognise that any increase in Council Tax is hard to stomach for many of our residents who are feeling the pinch, but I give them this guarantee. Every penny of your Council Tax is spent on improving the county of Surrey, through supporting those people who really need it and enhancing the quality of life of everyone who lives here."
The budget
Our budget outlines all council spending for 2025 to 2026. This shows how we will spend over a billion pounds on essential services. The 2025/26 revenue budget (day-to-day spending) includes:
- £526m for Adults, Wellbeing and Health Partnerships
- £314m for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning
- £197.4m for 'Place' services
- £45.6m for Community Protection & Emergencies (including Surrey Fire & Rescue Service)
- £80.5m for Resources
- £100.7m for Central Income & Expenditure (including the borrowing costs associated with financing the capital programme).
For a full list of services and allocated budgets for 2025/26, please see the budget papers discussed at the Full Council.
Over 65% of the budget is for adult social care and children's care. This supports individuals with complex needs, disabilities, the elderly, and children in care.
Most residents benefit from services like road maintenance, libraries, countryside management, and community recycling centres. Essential services such as Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Trading Standards, and environmental and emergency management keep people safe and respond to serious incidents.
The budget also includes £406.3m for the capital programme in 2025 to 2026. This covers things like:
- highways schemes
- school maintenance
- care accommodation
- Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school places
- libraries investment
- and much more...
High inflation, rising costs, increased staff wages, and less money from central government are affecting the council's finances. As a result, we have identified over £66m of efficiencies across the council, and Council Tax will rise by 4.99% this year (made up of 2.99% increase in the core Council Tax and 2% increase on the Adult Social Care Precept).
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