Southampton City Council sets balanced budget for 2025/26

On Wednesday 26 February, the council voted to a balanced budget for 2025/26. It also reflects how it reached this point

The budget builds on the success of the council’s adapt | grow | thrive Transformation Programme, launched in July 2024, which has already delivered £9.5m of savings this year. It has also drawn out a realistic roadmap to achieve over £50m of recurring savings over the coming years, including £34.5m in 2025/26 alone.

The success of its savings programme over the past year means the balanced budget agreed by council for 2025/26 does not rely on any Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from Government for day-to-day spending. This demonstrates the council living within its financial means for daily expenditure.

The council has achieved this through significant transformation savings, additional central government funding and directorates across the council underspending by a total of £19m this financial year.

The transformation savings are a major contributor to reducing reliance on EFS in 2024/25 and are key to balancing the budget. The programme has and will continue to transform the way the council works by making council services more efficient, embracing new technology, increasing income and learning from and adopting best practice from elsewhere.

Speaking at Full Council, Councillor Lorna Fielker, Leader of Southampton City Council, said:
“When I became Leader of the council, we faced a big financial challenge. This followed years of rising costs and increasing demand for services. As a result, the council was forced to rely on exceptional financial support from Government to balance our budget.

“Over the past year we’ve made major progress to return the council to a sustainable financial footing while protecting services for local people. That has been achieved through a focus on getting the best value for money from every penny of taxpayer money we spend.

“Transforming how the council operates will be the back backbone of our financial recovery, but a core focus has always been on improving and modernising the services we offer local people”.

Councillor Simon Letts, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services said:
“This budget will return Southampton City Council to a sustainable financial position and protects services for residents in the long term”.