Hertfordshire County Council unveils budget plans for 2025/26

Hertfordshire County Council has today published a draft budget for the next financial year. The Integrated Plan outlines how the council will spend more than £1.1 billion on public services that touch the lives of all residents at every milestone, while also working to protect people in Hertfordshire who need the most support. 

The proposals for the coming budget year outlines increased investment of £128 million compared to 2024/25 to protect, maintain and improve services.

Highlights from the proposed 2025/26 budget include:

• Nearly half a billion pounds will be spent supporting 30,000 adults to live well for longer, including an additional £30 million investment to support those providing care, ensuring that caring staff receive a living wage and to offset the increased National Insurance costs. £26m of additional investment will be spent to ensure that the council can meet the expected increase in demand from those requiring care.
• Just over quarter of a billion pounds will be spent on children’s services, including £28m of additional investment to ensure we can continue to support Children Looked After and children with disabilities.
• A further £2.8m of funding on top of the previous £7m investment will be made towards our SEND improvement programme ‘Making SEND Everyone’s Business’.
• £100m will be spent on highways maintenance works to keep Hertfordshire moving, an increase of £6m from the previous year
• Funding will be made available to improve flood protection and investigations.
• New Prevention and Health Inequalities Fund of £3.4m to support residents to stay healthy and well and address health inequalities in Hertfordshire over the next three years. 
• Creating a new Carers Hub to allow carers to access greater levels of support
• Further investment in a Domestic Abuse One Stop Shop to enhance support for people at medium and standard risk

In common with councils across the country, the budget has been set in an extremely challenging financial context with increasing demand for services and costs likely to rise over the next twelve months if inflation continues its upward trend and the impact of the introduction of higher employer National Insurance contributions is felt.

To reduce the burden placed on taxpayers, the council will continue to drive down their own internal costs with plans to deliver £42 million savings by the end of the 2025/26 financial year, which is on top of £46 million savings agreed last year.

Despite this, the current proposal presents a headline budget that requires the use of £3m of reserves in addition to having to raise Council Tax by 4.99 per cent (including 2 per cent to support Adult Social Care) in April. 

Councillor Richard Roberts, Leader of Hertfordshire County Council said: 

“From keeping Hertfordshire moving to helping residents who need the most support, we will be spending over a billion pounds delivering services across Hertfordshire and focussing on what really matters to you.  

“The current economic outlook for the country and changes recently made by the government, means that our own costs will rise in 2025, but rather than rest on our laurels, we are working hard to bring these under control so that as little of these additional costs are passed onto you.

“Years of prudent financial planning have put us in a good position, but once again we are going to have to access our reserves and make significant savings to balance the budget.” 

The county council is now seeking the views of residents on the proposed budget and are invited to share their feedback by completing the survey by Wednesday 5 February at: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/budgetsurvey