Warwickshire County Council will now set its budget on 17 February 2026, after Councillors failed to reach an agreement on 5 February.
Given the lack of a majority for any one party, the Conservative Group sought to facilitate discussions between all parties to seek a sensible compromise that all parties could accept. Though other parties negotiated in good faith, it became clear that the Liberal Democrats in particular had no intention of reaching an accommodation. Indeed, they sought to prolong the negotiations in the hope of passing their own budget late at night, hoping that Councillors opposed to their position would go home and be unavailable to vote. They also sought to corral the support of other parties by raiding the Capital Investment Fund and taking a risky approach to the unknown future pressures fund.
It was also difficult to reach an agreement directly with Reform alone, given the constraints on the Council’s finances - it was clear to all that a 3.89% Council Tax rise was not credible. Cllr Warwick therefore took the view that an adjournment until after further detail had emerged about the Local Government Finance Settlement would be the most sensible way to proceed, and this has been vindicated with what appears to be a more favourable settlement than initially thought.
The Conservative Group are therefore hopeful that a below maximum tax rise could be sustainably delivered while protecting services and maintaining sufficient money in the unknown future pressures fund to ensure Warwickshire County Council maintains its financial resilience.
Cllr Adrian Warwick commented:
“It’s a sad reality that we were unable to come together and set a budget that reflected the priorities of all of Warwickshire’s representatives, and I’m particularly frustrated that the Liberal Democrats sought to play political games rather than work constructively in the interests of the people of Warwickshire.
In the end, I called for the decision on the budget to be deferred until 17 February on the basis that we would have more certainty about Warwickshire’s finances from the Local Government Settlement, and we now have this certainty following an announcement yesterday.”
Cllr Chris Kettle commented:
“90% of the SEND deficit will be paid off by central government and this will significantly reduce financing costs, so I am optimistic a deal can be reached on 17 February which is fiscally responsible, and which doesn’t take more money from the public than is absolutely necessary. I was disappointed at one Labour Councillor’s comments, who suggested that we should ‘take what we can’ from the people- I say we should only take what we need to protect the services the public rely on and expect.
I also hope this provides enough fiscal headroom for Reform to avoid trying to dip into the reserves of the public finances for short term political gain.”
