Draft budget 2026/27 proposals

Draft budget for 2026/27

On Thursday 13 November, the Council's Executive approved a draft 2026/27 budget for public consultation.

We are consulting on the proposals for the draft budget between Monday 17 November 2025 and Monday 12 January 2026 (closing at 12 noon).

We invite residents, businesses and partners to give us your views on the draft budget.

Our budget process

The Council provides over 50 different services to our 159,000 residents. This includes everything from waste & recycling collections, street cleaning and homelessness services to business support and community safety.

We have a strong track record of financial management, and need to budget carefully each year to balance the financial pressures and service demands we face with our commitment to support residents and the borough.

Proposals for the 2026/27 budget have been developed by Councillors and officers over recent months. Following the consultation, the feedback we receive will be considered by the Executive in January as they make their recommendations for the final budget to Full Council.

This will be the Council’s last year in operation, as the borough of Reigate & Banstead will become part of a larger East Surrey Council from April 2027.

Key proposals

The draft budget projects budget requirements of £23.018 million, which includes net savings of £1.915 million, additional spending of £0.793 million, and use of £0.683 million of reserves.

We are proposing freezing the amount of Council Tax we collect to help minimise costs for residents. Reigate & Banstead accounts for around 10% of a resident’s overall Council Tax bill; we anticipate that Surrey County Council and Surrey Police will increase the 90% for which they are responsible. 

Savings include those from contracts that are no longer needed, changing the way some staff posts are funded, and ending publication of the Borough News magazine. There are also proposed changes to the fees and charges that the Council collects (including increasing the price of optional garden waste collections to cover service cost increases in recent years).

The draft budget proposes a draw on reserves (one-off funding) of £0.7 million, funding a shortfall in Housing Benefit Subsidy revenue from central government, whilst more information is awaited on the government’s funding settlement for next year.

Supporting information

You can see the full draft budget proposals considered by the Executive on the Council's website, within the agenda papers for item 4 of the Executive meeting of 13 November 2025 - Service and Financial Planning (moderngov.co.uk).