An additional £25.7 million needs to be allocated towards providing vital statutory social care and support services for Plymouth’s most vulnerable residents next year as cost and demand pressures continue to increase.
A report to Cabinet on the draft 2026/27 budget highlights that – like in many other local authorities – demand for adult social care, children’s social care, homelessness and SEND services in Plymouth continues to rise despite ongoing efforts to put proactive preventative measures in place to reduce the number of people needing more intensive and higher cost support.
The additional £25.7 million allocated in the draft budget is needed to meet demand pressures in areas such as children social care and placements (£9.4m), SEND home to school transport (£2m); adult social care (£11.1m); homelessness prevention £623,000; short breaks (£1.2m); and the Dedicated School Grant deficit funding (£1.6m).
The report says that while the Government’s latest Provisional funding settlement has given greater certainty over future funding, it has not provided enough additional funding to cover the scale of demand pressures the Council is facing.
This means that to set a balanced revenue budget that will enable the delivery of more than 300 services in 2026/27 the Council will need to deliver an additional £17.3 million of new savings above those previously agreed. These include proposed savings totalling £10.5m; invest to save projects that will save £4.3m; and further decisions that will reduce costs by another £2.5 million.
The Council will also need to change underlying arrangements for part of its debt and investment portfolio to save an additional £9.7m, with Council departments needing to continue working on finding further savings to minimise the use of reserves.
The draft budget for 2026/27 assumes an increase in Council Tax of up to 2.99 per cent and use of the 2 per cent adult social care precept, in line with the policy set out in the Government’s Autumn Statement and the Local Government Settlement. However, final Council Tax levels will be decided by the Full Council in February.
Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for Finance, said: “While our financial position is exceptionally challenging and we are having to make difficult decisions as we work to propose a balanced budget, we are confident that can protect hundreds of services that we know Plymouth residents need and value.
“We will be working continuously up until the budget setting meeting and beyond to drive out more efficiency in everything we do.
“We have already been very successful in ongoing efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency but unfortunately – like other councils across the country – we continue to face unprecedented cost and demand pressures in critical statutory care services, which account for around two thirds of our total revenue budget. While there is a significant amount of work in train to reduce the number of people reaching the stage where they need to rely on intensive support services, there are no quick or easy solutions or instant savings.
“Even with these challenges, we remain committed to our ambitious vision for the city and ensuring that Plymouth residents benefit from work to secure and create jobs, provide affordable housing, increase community safety, support better transport, while protecting services for children, vulnerable adults and supporting those affected by homelessness. At all times we remain acutely aware of the ongoing financial pressures and economic challenges facing households across Plymouth and will continue striving to provide the best possible value for money that we can.”