Council Tax Support Scheme 2026/27 Consultation

Overview

Council Tax Support (CTS) is a discount that helps people to pay their Council Tax. 

By law, we must review, each year, how much we spend on CTS. 

We are considering changing the amount of CTS some people get.. We want your views on the proposed changes and any impact they would have on your household.  

If we made these changes in their entirety, the Council Tax Support scheme annual expenditure would reduce by £872,000 in 2026/27. 

Why are we doing this 

The Council remains under the intervention of the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government due to it having failed to meet its best value duty or demonstrate that it can become sustainable and resilient without exceptional financial support. This requires the Council to live within its means and consider ways of driving down costs.  

The Council currently have one of the most beneficial CTS schemes within Berkshire and its scheme is more generous than many other councils in the local area and statistical neighbours. With the financial pressures to close the budget gap, the Council must look at all options, including reducing support provided under the CTS.  

Who will be affected by these changes 

If you are of working-age and are currently in receipt of CTS, that level of support will potentially reduce under these proposals. 

What are the proposed changes 

For working-age customers who are not working, the maximum level of Council Tax Support will be reduced from 80% to 70%. 

For working-age customers who are employed, those with incomes in Bands 2, 3, or 4, will see a reduction in the level of support available. 

The table gives the current and proposed Income Bands: 

If we were to implement the new Bands we would reduce gross CTS expenditure by £872,000 each year. The table below shows the reduction of scheme expenditure:

We are also proposing: 

For Universal Credit customers, we will use the level of earnings calculated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) when assessing entitlement. As part of this change, 100% of any pension contributions will be disregarded – up from the current 50%. This will increase the level of support available to Universal Credit customers.

Possible additional support under consideration is: 

• Continuation of the CTS Hardship Fund, currently £350,000 (£175,000 from the gross reduction in CTS expenditure in 2025/26 and £175,000 from the Household Support Fund) to provide additional financial assistance to households who experience extreme financial difficulty and are unable to pay their required Council Tax charge. 

• Providing detailed financial inclusion, welfare benefit and debt guidance to assist households in managing their finances and ensuring that income is maximised and outgoings, are reduced. 

What options have we considered?

We have carefully considered other options. While these have not been ruled out entirely, at this stage we do not believe they are practical or affordable to implement for the reasons explained.

We have modelled several proposed scheme options, and these are shown in the table below:

We have considered:  

How to get involved with the consultation 

The consultation on the proposed Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme runs from 27 October 2025 to 21 December 2025. 

•  A Word version of the consultation form is also available for download and can be emailed to cts.consultation@slough.gov.uk. Your views are important to us. 

• Feedback can also be sent directly to cts.consultation@slough.gov.uk. Please note that this email address is for the consultation only – messages about other matters will not receive a response. However, we strongly recommend completing the survey to ensure your views are fully captured. 

• Drop-in sessions will be held at The Curve, Britwell Hub, Chalvey Hub, Langley Hub, and Cippenham Hub. Dates and times will be published on the following Council web page Council Tax Support scheme 2026-27 – Slough Borough Council once confirmed. 

Data Protection Statement

This consultation 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 and by continuing to complete this consultation questionnaire 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 consultation.

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.

The council does not collect personal information in this survey which means the information you provide is anonymous. We do not ask for your name, address, email address, telephone number, full post code or any other information that would allow us to identify you. The information you choose to give us in the demographic questions is also anonymous so we cannot identify you from it. To help us keep this survey anonymous and protect your privacy, please do not include any personal information in the free text boxes. For example names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers or any other information that could identify you or others.

Please refer to our data privacy notice 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

Why your views matter

No decision has been made to make these changes – the results of this consultation will show us how different people would be affected. We will look very carefully at these results before making any decision.

Once the consultation period has ended the feedback will be collated and a public report presented at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet in January 2026 for them to make a recommendation to full Council. If changes to the scheme are approved by the Council, the new scheme will then go live from the 1st April 2026.

We will write a report about the views we have collected, which includes this survey. If changes are implemented, we will show how they have shaped any changes. The report will be added to this page.