Council refuses to rule out tax rise above 5%

A local authority aiming to plug a £27m gap in its budget has refused to rule out raising council tax by more than 5%.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, which is run by a Liberal Democrat-led coalition, announced the forecast overspend in this year's budget in August.

It said it was the result of rising costs, a reduction in government funding and demand for care services. Councils are required to hold a local referndum or seek permission from the government if they want to raise council tax by more than 5%.

And Mike Cox, the council's cabinet member for finance, said the authority was focussing on finding savings within its services.

But, asked whether council tax could be increased beyond 5%, Cox said: "We're not ruling anything out."

"Personally, I don't want to see an increase above 5%, but it depends on how successful we are in delivering efficiencies and balancing the budget," Cox said.

The shortfall is spread across several departments, including an £11.8m overspend in children's services, £8.3m in wellbeing, and £6.8m in operations, which covers seafront services and parking.

Cox said the council only realised the scale of the problem after the first quarter of the financial year.

In response, the council introduced a vacancy freeze, extra approval requirements for purchase orders, and financial recovery measures across services.

It has also launched "star chamber" reviews, challenging departments to find savings of up to 20%.

The council had committed to delivering £14m in savings for 2026/27, but is now forecasting about £9.5m.

Cox said the council was not currently drawing on its reserves, though this had not been ruled out.

"Reserves are there for the unforeseen," he said. "In my opinion, some of this is unforeseen, so I suspect some of this will need to be taken [from] reserves."

He said most of the council's largest spending areas, including children's services and adult social care, were statutory and legally required, meaning any future cuts would more likely affect non-statutory services.

"There isn't a list of proposed cuts being considered at present," he said, adding that the position would be reviewed after the second quarter and during preparations for next year's budget.

Last year, council tax in BCP was raised by 6.74% after the government granted the authority permission to raise bills above the cap.