The Council Assembly approved the proposed budget for 2025-26 as amended by the Liberal Democrat group. It also approved the associated council tax increase of 4.99% and agreed to continue existing local schemes for war disability and war widow/widower housing benefit. In addition, the Capital Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy were approved without amendment.

Allocation of Southwark 2030 Funding

Amendment A, submitted by the Liberal Democrat group, altered the allocation of £2 million from the Southwark 2030 reserve, reallocating funds to new projects suggested by residents through the Southwark Citizens' Assembly, a randomly selected, representative group of residents who discuss and recommend new policy to the council.

The Southwark Citizens’ Assembly brought together 50 residents, chosen by random ballot to represent our borough. They met across two weekends to discuss and agree on recommendations for the council on how we can build a fairer, greener and safer Southwark.

The reallocated funds were as follows:

• £450,000 to fund Nighttime Antisocial Behaviour Officers to patrol out of hours to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.
• £60,000 to fund women’s nighttime safety measures, including providing spiking kits to bars and clubs, opportunities for training in self-defence and accelerating the rollout of the Women’s Nighttime Safety Charter.
• £30,000 to fund a new Noise nuisance app to allow recording and reporting of noise, and the tracking of complaints.
• £160,000 to extend the Southwark Energy Savers Scheme.
• £300,000 to prevent and clean town-centre graffiti.
• £300,000 to address high levels of eviction from friends and family.
• £100,000 to fund a new support and resettlement service for people placed in out of borough Temporary Accommodation.
• £100,000 to fund a new Southwark Temporary Accommodation Action Group.
• £100,000 to improve Wi-Fi access for people in Temporary Accommodation.
• £400,000 to open a dedicated centre for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The amendment was passed, with 45 votes in favour and 0 votes against, with 10 abstentions.

Council Tax

The Council Assembly approved the proposed increase to council tax of 4.99%, with 45 votes in favour and 0 against with 10 abstentions. This increase is made up of a 2% Adult Social Care precept and a 2.99% increase to fund other council services.

The Greater London Authority precept will be an additional £490.38.

The council's element of the Band D council tax will be £1,387.52 and the total council tax for a Band D property, including the GLA precept will be £1,877.90.

Full details of the proposed council tax for each valuation band are contained in Appendix B and Appendix C of the Setting the Council Tax 2025-26 report.

The Council Assembly noted that a new 100% council tax premium on second homes is available to councils following the adoption of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. The council will charge this premium.

The former parish of St. Mary Newington will not receive a council tax reduction.

Capital Strategy and Treasury Management Strategy

The Council Assembly approved the Capital Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy as proposed by the cabinet.

Scrutiny

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC), a cross-party committee of Councillors that holds the cabinet to account, made a number of recommendations to the cabinet prior to the meeting.

The OSC's recommendations included:

• strengthening work to bring vacant commercial properties back into use.
• taking advantage of the Future Southwark Transformation Programme to deliver climate change mitigation measures such as the transition to a fully electric fleet and more sustainable working patterns.
• analysing and sharing with other London Boroughs, the impact of funding conditions associated with the government’s Homelessness Prevention Grant, as well as lobbying the government for greater flexibility in how the funds can be used.
• lobbying the government for rent controls to tackle the homelessness crisis.
• streamlining the process for dealing with residents with 'no recourse to public funds', people who are subject to immigration control and have limited access to public funds.
• assessing the impact on protected characteristics and vulnerable groups because of the budget savings and efficiencies in the first year of the 2024-25 budget.
• lobbying the government to mitigate the impact of rising employer National Insurance contributions.

The cabinet considered the OSC's recommendations and responded to them, providing its reasoning. These responses were included as part of the Policy and Resources Strategy: 2025-26 Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy report presented to the Council Assembly.

The Budget

The balanced budget for 2025-26 was based on a budget requirement of £356,430,734, with a council tax requirement of £155,897,584.

The council expects an increase in both unringfenced and ringfenced grant income from central government. Ringfenced public health grant income, social care grant income, and the Homelessness Prevention Grant, have all increased, whilst the revenue support grant and business rate top-up grant have increased by 1.7%, in line with September's Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The council is expecting to receive £6.2m from the new Extended Producer Responsibilities (EPR) scheme. The EPR is a new scheme where producers pay a fee for the packaging they produce, with the funds used to cover the cost of collecting, managing, recycling, and disposing of household waste.

The council is expecting a number of pressures in its 2025-26 budget including:

• increased cost of temporary accommodation,
• increased demand for services for residents with 'no recourse to public funds',
• inflationary increases to salaries,
• increased costs for social care,
• an increase in the levy paid by the council to fund the Freedom Pass scheme. The Freedom Pass is a scheme run by Transport for London that provides free travel for London residents who are older, or who have disabilities.

The budget for 2025-26 includes savings of £16,040,000, with most of these savings to be realised by the Future Southwark Transformation Programme. The council anticipates that the transformation programme will deliver total savings of £10m in 2025-26 and 2026-27.

The budget also includes an increase to fees and charges of £5,690,000.