Our draft budget: We welcome your feedback

Every year, Surrey County Council has to make a plan for how to spend its money. This is called a budget. We use this money to run important services across Surrey and to focus on our main goals. These include helping people to live independently and well in their communities, supporting children and families, protecting Surrey’s residents and businesses, and taking care of Surrey’s environment and highways.

In the documents on the right-hand side of this page you will find a short summary of our 2026/27 draft budget plans, including some of the ways we’re working to save money while continuing to provide important services.

A Youtube video is available above, that provides context around the financial challenges Surrey County Council is facing and what this means for the 2026/27 draft budget.

While the overall budget will be set by the council at their meeting in February 2026, we’d like to hear your thoughts on how these changes might affect you. Your feedback can help us improve how we deliver services in the future.

We encourage you to read the information below and in the documents available on the right-hand side of this page before submitting your response.

As we prepare for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Surrey, the draft budget for 2026/27 is the last one for Surrey County Council. The budget’s focus is to support services and communities during this final year. While the budget will also help set the stage for the new unitary councils in East Surrey and West Surrey, its priority is making sure the current council continues to deliver effectively, with these upcoming changes in mind.

The local government financial climate is extremely challenging. The national financial climate, high public sector borrowing and slow national economic growth are all impacting our financial position. Central government are committed to implementing reforms to local government funding, known as The Fair Funding Review. These reforms, as they are currently proposed, are anticipated to result in significant decreases in government funding for Surrey County Council. As a result, we will become increasingly reliant on Council Tax as the primary source of funding for delivering vital services. This, combined with substantial increases in the cost of maintaining current services and higher demand for key services, results in pressures increasing at a significant rate.

The government has said it wants to give councils more long-term funding plans through multi-year settlements. Due to the timing of the Autumn Budget and the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) for 2026/27, we won’t know exactly how much money Surrey County Council will get for 2026/27 until late December 2025. The final decision will come in January 2026. While we have a rough idea of what to expect, there is still some uncertainty until we get the full details.

The council continues to focus on financial accountability in its final year. We will need to reduce costs and take difficult decisions to help us remain financially resilient, protect vital services, and ensure No One is Left Behind.

Although good progress has been made over the last few months, at the point of publication, there remains a provisional budget gap for 2026/27 of £21.3 million.

We would like your thoughts on our proposals and your ideas to help us to set a balanced budget for 2026/27.

The draft budget contains a considerable number of efficiencies as well as areas of investment. We would like to hear your views on these proposals to make sure we are implementing them in the best way possible.

If you would like more details on our draft budget proposals and the specific efficiencies we are proposing, you can read these by using the following link: 2026-27 Draft Budget Report

Privacy statement

Any personal information you choose to provide will be kept confidential and used in accordance with our privacy notice.

Accessibility

You can find our accessibility statement here. If you require the survey in a different format, language or in hard copy (including a stamped addressed envelope to return the survey), or have any queries, please contact Surrey County Council at:

• Telephone: 03456 009 009 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays) 
• Textphone (via Relay UK): 18001 03456 009 009 
• Text (SMS): 07860 053 465 
• British Sign Language: www.surreycc.gov.uk/bsl 
• Email: contactcentre@surreycc.gov.uk

Alternatively, it can be returned by post to the following address: Surrey County Council, Budget Consultation, 11 Woodhatch Road , Cockshot Hill, Reigate, RH2 8EF

Have your say

Please give us your feedback using the link below. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

This consultation is open from Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 4pm and will close on Sunday 4 January at 11:59pm.