Our budget for the next financial year was agreed by the council on Friday 20 February 2026.
Introducing this year's budget, Cllr Tom Catton, executive councillor for resources at Lincolnshire County Council set out the financial context.
"The budget headline presented this year is that we will have in excess of £80m of cost pressures to cover, and despite the government providing around £36m in 26/27 of additional funding to us, and a reduced employer pension contributions of £9m, it has been a considerable challenge to meet that budget gap to present a balanced budget for 26/27."
A small council tax increase has been agreed to help meet this challenge. Equating to 90p per week on the average band D property, the 2.9% council tax increase will predominantly pay for the increase in costs and demand for social care for older people in the county. It is expeted that this will be one of the lowest council tax increases of all county councils in the country.
"Working with the corporate leadership team, our executive has identified £35.5m of known savings for 26/27, including the reduced pensions payments. These savings will rise to £62.6m in the coming years. But this is just the beginning. We will continue this work going forward- by looking at the data to see where we can get better results but without increasing spending; and eliminating spending that simply does not deliver for our communities in Lincolnshire. I am confident we will find further savings over the coming years."
The council will also be using some of its reserves to balance this year's budget.
"Whilst we are not touching anything from our general reserves or financial volatility reserves to remain resilient, we have reviewed our other reserves we hold and have identified money we can use this year without adverse risk to the council. We owe it to our residents that chose change last May, to look at things differently and to deliver that change. I genuinely do not believe we can ask residents to pay more in council tax while we have money in the bank above what we truly need."
Cllr Catton also thanked everyone who made their views known during the budget consultation and scrutiny process.
"I would like to thank the residents, partners and stakeholders who took the time to take part in our public budget consultation. I have read every single one of the 389 comments that were made, including the one comment that said, ‘I bet no one will read this’!
Consistently, residents told us that they were still worried about the impacts of increasing council tax on their own finances. But equally many worried about the council not balancing the books and having to cut services. Our budget addresses both – keeping council tax low without sacrificing the vital services our residents need."
Cllr Catton's full budget speech for 2026/27:
"Good morning councillors and thank you for being here as I very proudly introduce this year’s budget for approval. The papers before you, almost 200 pages, have a lot of financial detail and I would like to talk today about some of the context behind these figures.
This is my first budget as the executive councillor for resources, and our first as the new administration of this county council. During the time since we took control of the council, we have been getting to grips with the finances ahead of this budget so we can focus on what matters most to residents.
The change in the leadership of this council, reflects the change of approach that residents want. And we are setting out to do things differently. I want to thank all the officers who have helped us to prepare this budget – not only Michelle and the finance team, but officers across the council. I have been heartened by how staff have worked alongside us to look in depth at council services, and how they have been committed to finding efficiencies.
And I would also like to thank all councillors – cross party – who have given feedback and constructive challenge through scrutiny and consultation events. Also, a thank you to Cllr Martin Hill who during my time here has shared his insight in this area to me from his many years of looking after the resources portfolio here. It demonstrates that we have all collaborated to put residents first - this is our budget collectively for the people of Lincolnshire.
And we have listened to what they have told us. Residents are worried about their own finances and worried about costs increasing.
On the doorsteps, they were worried about the amount of debt that had been accumulated by the council and felt that public money was often being wasted. They want to see their council deliver value for money. So, from day one, we have been determined to address this.
We have had to operate within the budget set by the previous administration up to this point and coming into the council we inherited a medium-term deficit of £123million being £25million deficit in 26/27, £42m in 27/28 and increasing to £55.6million by 28/29.
We have just approved a new council plan – setting out clearly and simply to the public what they can expect from us. Our ambitions have been spelled out very clearly and this budget supports that council plan and how we will deliver it. The budget headline presented this year is that we will have in excess of £80m of cost pressures to cover, and despite the government providing around £36m in 26/27 of additional funding to us , and a reduced employer pension contributions of £9m, it has been a considerable challenge to meet that budget gap to present a balanced budget for 26/27.
Working with the corporate leadership team, our executive has identified £35.5m of known savings for 26/27, including the reduced pensions payments. These savings will rise to £62.6m in the coming years.
But this is just the beginning. We will continue this work going forward- by looking at the data to see where we can get better results but without increasing spending; and eliminating spending that simply does not deliver for our communities in Lincolnshire. I am confident we will find further savings over the coming years.
Whilst we are not touching anything from our general reserves or financial volatility reserves to remain resilient, we have reviewed our other reserves we hold and have identified money we can use this year without adverse risk to the council. We owe it to our residents that chose change last May, to look at things differently and to deliver that change. I genuinely do not believe we can ask residents to pay more in council tax while we have money in the bank above what we truly need.
When we started setting the budget early last year, we knew we wanted to keep any council tax increases to a minimum, and I am therefore incredibly proud that under our leadership we are proposing only an increase of council tax by 2.9%. We expect that this will be one of the lowest council tax increases of all county councils in the country.
Not only this, but I am proud that having entered office last year when the council tax increase was 2.99% with a significant and challenging budget deficits forecast of £123million. Today we are setting a budget with a 2.9% council tax increase with a small budget surplus projected over the settlement period. In short a £130million positive swing in outlook since taking over.
Having thanked earlier staff and councillors for engaging with our budget, I would also like to thank the residents, partners and stakeholders who took the time to take part in our public budget consultation. I have read every single one of the 389 comments that were made, including the one comment that said, ‘I bet no one will read this’! I would really encourage all councillors to read the comments for a great insight into how residents feel.
Consistently, in these comments’ residents told us that they were still worried about the impacts of increasing council tax on their own finances. But equally many worried about the council not balancing the books and having to cut services. Our budget addresses these both – keeping council tax low without sacrificing the vital services our residents need. We will not burden them with council tax increases that cannot be justified.
I am looking forward to building on this work in the coming years, to make our commitments to Lincolnshire residents, a reality."