Arun District Council agrees 2026-2027 budget
At a special meeting of the full council last evening, Arun District Councillors voted for the proposed budget to take the council through the next financial year, 2026-2027.
This has proven to be another challenging budget to produce, given the continuing demands on local authorities and changes to the Local Government Funding Settlement. The move to multi-year settlements (longer-term funding) is a positive step, as it gives us greater certainty about the money we'll receive in future years.
Thanks were given to the Chief Finance Officer and the Finance team for their hard work in producing a balanced budget.
Members engaged in lively debate, providing challenge and scrutiny and the budget was approved by 32 votes to 14, with 3 abstentions. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Martin Lury delivered the budget speech and highlighted several areas:
The Alliance has come on a journey with multiple bumps in the road, but by employing from the outset a successful financial strategy, has turned a £5.2million deficit into a budget surplus not seen for many a year.
Despite this financial backdrop, we have been able to progress exciting regeneration projects with the Littlehampton Seafront enhancement proving to be a remarkable success. The future looks rosier for our two seaside towns - Bognor Regis esplanade has been embellished courtesy of West Sussex County Council and The Alexandra Theatre is undergoing a much-needed facelift with the prospect of a revamped theatre coupled with a new studio area for form and arts' centre enriching the lives of the district as a whole, catering for all ages.
We are proposing to increase our business support offer by allocating £130,000 this year to supplement the £70,000 already in place, thus supporting both start up and existing businesses in the current challenging climate. Additionally, we have put aside £25,000 to commission a report to focus on ways to improve the customer experience at The Windmill Entertainment Centre, Littlehampton, and a further £5,000 to purchase a beach access wheelchair / beach buggy.
Arun District Council's capital programme remains ambitious with the Alexandra Theatre revamp and the Angmering Sports Hub projects on the horizon and it is worth noting that our strengthened position in terms of reserves renders our capital programme financially robust and affordable, although we need to keep this under constant review.
The surplus in the budget this year is one to celebrate but we need to be mindful that the transitional funding from government in respect of the Fair Funding Review will begin to wind down from 2027/2028 and will have an adverse impact on the budget, and budget proposals submitted will need to be reviewed as part of future budget setting processes. Prudent management has, however, enabled us to save £1.4 million on the cleansing contract and we will continue an asset review in the coming years.
The Arun District Council Tax proportion for 2026/2027 on an average band D property, is £221.04 per annum, which works out at an extra £6.42 per annum or just under 13 pence per week, representing a 2.99% increase. It is important to note that our share is just a small part of the Council Tax collected by Arun District Council on behalf of West Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and town and parish councils.
Housing rents are to be increased by 4.8% to an average rent of £122.33 per week in accordance with the Regulator of Social Housing guidance.
We have expanded our Council Tax Reduction Scheme whereby our veterans with Armed Forces pensions and compensation payments now will have them fully disregarded in terms of assessment, the maximum award has increased from 90% to 100% of the charge as well as the carers' allowance and the carers' element of universal credit also being fully disregarded, for example.
In conclusion, we have restored financial stability to this council, have a healthy balance of reserves of almost £19million, and I would like to thank Antony Baden, Shellie Bushell and all in the team for their excellent input as Cllr Nash and I developed this year's budget.
You can view a recording of the meeting and view the meeting papers on the Arun District Council website: Arun District Council