Today Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet said it had no choice but to recommend to its Full Council increases to charges that will sadly affect every resident in the Westmorland and Furness area.
Introducing the 2026/27 Budget report and recommendations, Cllr Andrew Jarvis, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, said:
“It’s a total disgrace that as result of a significant reduction in our funding from Government that we have had no choice but to recommend the implementation of increased charges. These will affect every one of our residents, especially at a time of a continued cost of living crisis.
“Our council has suffered grievously in the Government’s funding settlement. This reduces the amount of support that we get from the Government by about 1/3rd over the funding cycle – leaving us with a shortfall of £12m for next year increasing to £43m by 2028/29.
“Since we became aware of this, we have been warning about the impact it would have on the council, our residents and our ability to deliver essential services. Unfortunately, these warnings have fallen on deaf ears and despite the lobbying of us, and organisations such as the County Councils Network, the Government’s announcement of the final funding figures have shown no significant change for Westmorland & Furness.
“As a responsible authority with a strong grip on our finances we have already been looking at how much we can save by fundamentally challenging what the council does and changing the way we deliver our services.
“But even with the savings we have identified, these will not be sufficient to offset the significant loss in government funding.
“Consequently, we feel we have no option but to implement increases and charges that we had hoped we could avoid.
“For example, we had been clear that we did not want to charge for ‘all’ garden waste collections. Our firm intention was that the first garden waste bin would be collected for free, with residents only paying an extra annual charge for any extra bins. But given the current funding situation we have no choice but to charge for the first collection as well.
Cllr Jarvis continued:
“This has been a difficult budget to propose. It includes recommendations that we would have all preferred to have avoided. It contains significant risk, and it will require ambitious cost savings over the next couple of years if we are to continue to balance our budget and protect investment in frontline services.
“The position we are in arises not of our own doing, but because of decisions by Government to drastically cut our funding to the detriment of our residents.”
Cabinet agreed to make the following recommendations to its Full Council meeting on 26 February including:
- A 4.99% increase in the council’s share of Council Tax.
- A new annual charge of £60 per bin for garden waste collections. This charge will only be applied to residents who choose to use the service and will be managed through an annual subscription.
- Car park charges will be increased by around 10%.
- Increases in the charges for the use of Windermere Ferry, and the removal of the ‘Blue Badge’ exemption.
- That other fees and charges are increased in line with inflation.