Southend-on-Sea City Council has published its draft budget proposals for 2026/27.
The draft proposals focus on continuing to protect our most vulnerable residents, regeneration of our city and its assets, maintaining frontline services, and investing in Highways and open spaces. Cabinet councillors will discuss the report at Cabinet on 19 January (items 7 to 9).
Key proposals include:
- protecting vulnerable residents - children's social care services will receive the single largest funding increase with over £5m extra invested into the service, in order to sustainably meet the rising demand seen in recent years. Adults will also receive a significant increase, funded partly through the ring-fenced adult social care precept
- safeguarding services - All library services and family centres will remain open, with proposed investment in additional staff for libraries and museums and £125k investment in upgrading the Planetarium as well as £200k to improve footpaths and cycleways in parks
- decent housing for local people - An additional £12.2m will be invested into the Decent Homes fund on top of the existing £21.018m in the programme, the council will invest £7.7m into improving energy efficiency of council homes via the Warmer Homes fund, £2.6m into disabled adaptations, there will also be a £2.364m programme to upgrade and replace lifts in housing blocks
- new council housing - Delivery of the council's £100m commitment to build and acquire new council housing for local people along with essential infrastructure improvements. Keeping costs low - We are freezing all pay and display parking charges, pier admission fees have also been frozen, garden waste collection fees are reducing, and we continue to freeze or reduce cremation fees
- investing in infrastructure - £30.3m of capital and revenue will be added to the existing highways service, with additional/record investment coming for the second year running, tackling more potholes, ensuring that buses can run smoothly and that pavements are safe to walk on. The city council is also investing £3.8m capital in the much-needed Pier infrastructure and rolling out EV charging infrastructure across the city
- efficiency and savings - Overall new savings and increased income proposals totalling £6.125m
The draft budget also includes an extra £1m funding for parks and open spaces, as well as additional investment in the High Street and Allotments (subject to viable business cases). Continuing with the open spaces and regeneration themes, the council will continue to invest in outdoor sports co-ordinators and an empty homes officer - all roles will be prioritised for either care leavers or apprenticeships.
There will also be £50k for civic pride street scene improvements, alongside additional funding for cultural events including City Jam and the return of Southend City Day on 7 March 2026, with an increased events budget to boost the city's cultural offer for residents, businesses, and visitors.
These additional investments are funded through a mixture of increased government funding, new grants, increased income and a proposed council tax increase of 4.99% (2.99% for general use and 2% for adult social care) to help fund statutory services and meet cost pressures in 2026/27, which is to be considered by Cabinet.
Cllr Daniel Cowan, Leader of the Council, said: "I am proud to be proposing another budget that invests in Southend, our people, local services, infrastructure, cultural assets, and open spaces despite ever-increasing demand for adult and children's social care. This has been another tough budget-setting process, and we've had to carefully balance the priorities and needs of the city, but I am pleased that we have been able to protect our most vulnerable groups while continuing to safeguard services.
"Through our clear vision and Civic Pride priorities, we have presented a budget that not only maintains investment in universal, frontline services, such as Highways and parks, but also supports projects that make Southend a great place to live, visit, and invest in.
"Whilst the financial environment remains challenging, we are being realistic about what we need to spend and taking action to reduce pressures in the long term. To protect services and maintain financial sustainability we regrettably must increase council tax but even with the proposed rise, Southend will remain among the lowest council tax rates in Essex and in the bottom third nationally.
"Residents want to see value for money after many years of council tax rises accompanied by service cuts under previous administrations which is why we are continuing to invest in services to build them back up and freezing or reducing costs of services like parking and garden waste collection."
The draft budget will be considered by Cabinet on Monday 19 January, Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 29 January, and Full Council on Thursday 20 February.