Our Budget 2025-26

Overview

We want your views on the council revenue and capital budget for the year ahead. Initial proposals for the council’s finances for the next financial year have been published.  

The revenue budget covers annual income and spending from day to day running of the council. The capital budgets include income and spending which provides service or economic benefits, often over a longer period. 

The council budget covers funding for services, fees and charges, Council Tax rates, and spending. Some elements are ring-fenced for specific areas, such as the Designated Schools Grant (DSG) and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).  

The total revenue budget proposed for the next financial year is just over £183million. The council’s challenging financial position is well known, and the current budget gap is just over £17million, this will be worked on through to the final decision stage.  

The first draft of the Budget proposals for 2025/26 has been published as part of the budget setting process that concludes in February 2025 at the annual Budget Council meeting. All councils are required by law to set a balanced budget each year. You can read the proposals in the Cabinet report and appendices on the council's website or below.

Between now and Budget Council, the proposals will be worked on and discussed at council meetings, including Cabinet on Monday 18 November.  

During the months ahead, we will also be asking your views on some of the different proposals being put forward and proposals for related work for changing the way the council works and delivers services in the borough to become a more efficient organisation. These will be listed below when they are live. 

Related surveys and consultations: 

• Council Tax Support Scheme 2025/26

Data Protection

This questionnaire and the information we collect will be used for the purposes of evidence-based decision making on Slough Borough Council’s future focus, approach and priorities. We are committed to the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulations. By continuing to complete this questionnaire and submitting your responses, you are consenting to us processing this data.

This will be used to make decisions in a public forum and the results will be published online and anonymous data may be accessed by third parties to validate the results of the survey.

We will only retain the data collected for as long as is necessary and, after the period determined by our Data Protection Officer, this data will be destroyed in accordance with our IT and Information Security Procedures.

Please refer to our data privacy notice at at https://www.slough.gov.uk/data-protection-foi/privacy-notices for further details on how we protect your privacy.

If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please email DataProtectionOfficer@slough.gov.uk