Calderdale faces £18.7m budget gap as council tax decision nears

Calderdale Council’s medium-term financial plan, which shows an £18.7m gap between spend and funding by year three, was due before Cabinet on Monday.

The plan covers 2027/28 to 2029/30, and the budget for 2027/28 will then be set at the annual Budget Council meeting on 1 March 2027.

Calderdale’s Band D bill for 2025/26, excluding police and fire precepts, was £1,937.51, up 4.99% from £1,845.44, an increase of £92.07.

That 4.99% included a 2% adult social care precept, which is a separate charge on top of the general rise to fund care for adults.

In its January 2025 draft budget, the council proposed a general rise of 2.99%, in line with a government cap of up to 3% for core Band D bills.

The same draft said the full 4.99% was needed to protect services for vulnerable people, and pencilled in matching rises for the following two years.

Those provisional figures put Band D at £2,034.19 for 2026/27 and £2,135.69 for 2027/28, though they were indicative and not decisions.

The medium-term plan reported to Cabinet in October 2024 had estimated funding gaps of £10.7m, £13.3m and £15.8m for 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28 respectively.

The January 2025 draft revised the gap for 2025/26 to just under £3m, once the local government finance settlement and savings proposals were included.

In February 2026, the council approved a balanced budget for 2026/27 and a financial plan for 2026/27 to 2028/29 that included raising council tax.

To balance net expenditure of £282.96m for 2026/27, that budget includes £5.24m of new savings, with fees and charges rising by at least 3% or being assessed against market conditions.

The council says it continues to face rising costs in children’s and adults’ social care and special educational needs.

Council leader Dan Sutherland said: “Times are tough and Council finances are stretched.”

The £18.7m gap, the council said, would remain unless it is successful in reducing current levels of expenditure.

Spending pressure was already visible last year: the 2025/26 revenue budget was £249.8m, and the net cost of services came in £7.9m higher, an overspend of 3.1%.

The £7.9m was met from corporate reserves to present a balanced position at the year end.

The council tax account also moved the wrong way, with a £3.8m deficit at 31 March 2026 against a £1m surplus a year earlier.

The council’s own share of that deficit is £3.2m, and 95.25% of council tax was collected in the year, down from 95.77% in 2024/25.

An estimate of the fund’s position will be made in January 2027, and that balance will be taken into account when council tax for 2027/28 is determined.