Council sets out budget plans for 2026-27

Wirral Council has been managing sustained financial pressures for several years and the scale and nature of these challenges now requires a careful, methodical and responsible response.  

With new political leadership and a strengthened senior officer team, the authority is focussed on taking the difficult but necessary decisions to protect essential services and secure long-term financial stability.  

The changes made now are intended to build a sustainable future for the Council—ensuring it can continue to deliver the vital services residents depend on and is better equipped to meet growing demand over the coming years. 

The current situation 

The council has been preparing for the coming year, based on how much is expected to be received from council tax, business rates, grants from Government and other income such as fees. This is balanced against the costs of providing all council services.  

The forecast is that the funding coming into the council will fall short of what we expect the council’s operations to cost in 2026/27. 

In addition, the council’s current level of reserves and balances is low, meaning there is not enough “in the bank” to help bridge this gap or to safeguard against unforeseen financial costs. 

The funding gap cannot be met without change on a significant scale across the whole authority. 

Wirral Council is facing one of the most challenging financial periods in its history. Despite a 6.1% increase in Core Spending Power for 2026/27, rising demand for essential services—particularly Adult Social Care, Children’s Services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)—continues to outstrip available resources. 

To legally balance the 2026/27 budget, the Council has submitted a request for £6 million of Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from Government. With reserves at critically low levels and demand‑driven costs increasing year on year, the Council must take decisive action to stabilise its finances, protect statutory services, and create a sustainable plan for the future. 

This point is made by the council’s external auditor who has made Statutory Recommendations for the council. These cover areas including improving the council’s governance while also identifying and putting in place significant deliverable cost reductions, such as: 

• addressing the growing and increasingly complex demands for social care for both Adults and Children’s services which cannot be sustained based on current operations,
• making difficult decisions to be made around increasing efficiency and reducing costs including shrinking the organisation overall and a reorganisation of how some services are provided 

How did we get here? 

Last year at the meeting on 26 February 2025, Wirral Council agreed a net revenue budget for 2025/2026 of £422.7m which was to be met by government grants, council tax, and business rates. 

However, the council has continued to face significant financial pressures driven by rising demand, inflationary costs, and the long-term impact of reduced Government funding.  

The final 2026/27 settlement from the Government delivers an approximate 6.1% funding increase towards Wirral Council’s costs, although this is expected to fall in the following years meaning the budget gap is expected to be £47million over the period 2026/76 – 2028/29. 

What have we been doing about it? 

In March 2025, the council’s Policy & Resources Committee approved a Budget Recovery Action Plan which established new and improved guiding principles for financial planning, including: 

• prioritising statutory services (which the council by law must deliver),
• reviewing discretionary services (those the council chooses to deliver), and
• maximising income generation such as through fees for some services, sales of unneeded assets.
• Forming cross‑party Budget Oversight Panels and a Budget Task & Finish Group to rigorously review all spending.
• Identifying £10.7m in savings, efficiencies and income through operational improvements, policy updates, and service reviews.
• Introducing a revised Council Tax Reduction Scheme, expected to save £4m while retaining protections for the most vulnerable.
• Rebasing budgets in Adult Social Care to align funding with actual levels of demand.
• Reducing assisted travel overspends through policy changes and demand‑management measures.
• Implementing strict financial controls, strengthened governance, and regular monitoring across all directorates.
• Preparing a long‑term Transformation Programme to overhaul how services are delivered and improve value for money. 

Despite these actions, the scale of demand‑led pressures means that savings alone cannot bridge the 2026/27 gap, which is why EFS is required. 

Why hasn’t this solved the issue? 

Demand in some areas, along with the costs of meeting that demand, has been rising significantly faster than the available funding. For example, Adult Social Care remains a major area of concern, with demand increasing sharply; more than 1,000 more people are receiving support compared to two years ago and complexity of the support they require is growing among older adults, individuals with disabilities, and those with mental health needs. 

While the Council has taken difficult decisions and delivered extensive savings, several barriers remain: 

• Demand is rising faster than savings can be implemented, especially in social care and SEND.
• Savings of this scale take time to design, consult on, and deliver—particularly when statutory services must continue to be provided.
• The Council’s reserve levels are too low to absorb shocks or fund major transformation at pace.
• Some national funding reforms are still uncertain, including future SEND responsibilities after 2028.
• One‑off measures, such as capitalisation or flexible use of capital receipts, cannot fix long‑term structural pressures. 

Exceptional Financial Support provides short‑term breathing space, but it is not a long‑term solution and carries borrowing costs. Sustainable financial balance requires redesigning how the Council operates. 

What can we do next to get the council on track and balance the budget in future? 

All directorates in the council were tasked with identifying savings, which are now being put forward to help balance the 2026/27 Budget. There will also be financial improvement measures of £4.6m such as changes to the discretionary Council Tax Support Scheme.  

The proposed budget for the coming year would also see a Council Tax increase of 2.99% plus and additional 2% ringfenced increase for Adult Social Care. This is forecast to generate £209.8 million in 2026/27, based on the overall increase of 4.99%. The proposed council tax rise increases available funding by £9.970m. 

However, despite some increases for the coming year there remains a significant budget gap between the cost of delivering services and the funding available to the council. 

To be balanced, the 2026/27 budget also depends on securing agreement of £6 million of exceptional financial support from the Government.  

What will change? 

A major transformation programme is underway across the whole council, from the way the leadership is organised right through the authority, but this will take some time to ensure it’s done correctly and even though it is already under way, and will achieve some savings in 2026/27, and these savings will rise in subsequent years. 

Adult Social Care will see its budget better aligned with levels of demand and the actual cost of service provision, alongside significant transformation to ensure the maximum value is achieved from the resources available. 

Across the wider Council, all Directorates have also identified a range of operational efficiencies totalling £8.9m aimed at maximising the impact of the resources available.  

A number of the budget proposals have staffing implications. It is planned to achieve this reduction through the deletion of vacant posts and releasing staff under the terms of the voluntary severance/early voluntary redundancy as far as possible. 

What happens next?  

A report on the budget proposals, with full details, will be presented to councillors on the authority’s Policy & Resources Committee, due to meet on Monday February 23. 

A final decision on the budget will be made at a meeting of the Full Council on March 2.