"Really awful budget" approved by Central Bedfordshire Council - as £116m of reserve spent in less than three years

The council’s audit committee was informed this week that CBC’s risk register now has a Section 114 notice, or the potential for bankruptcy, included on that list.

Heavily criticised aspects of the revenue budget for 2025/26 were overturned during more than four hours of debate, including a planned two days a week closure of household waste recycling centres and for Dunstable Library.

The outcome is a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax in 2025/26, which represents a Band D increase of £87.44 to a total of £1,839.74.

Executive member for finance and Independent Aspley and Woburn councillor John Baker said: “We face some significant challenges in the next year.

“The government’s National Insurance ‘jobs’ tax has cost us £3.4m for which we were told we’d be fully reimbursed. We were left £1.2m short.

“CBC has run at a loss since September 2022. The council has spent an extraordinary £116m of reserves in just three years.

“Everyone has been involved in those decisions, and the council has agreed a further £2.8m of reserves will be spent in the next financial year to balance our books. We’re set to have only £33m left in reserves, as of April 2026.

“We’ve cut the amount of money CBC spends on agency workers from £13m to less than £8m by changing the way we work.”

Efficiency savings of £35.4m for 2025/26 are required to produce a balanced budget amid continuing financial pressures, warned the budget report.

Conservative group leader and Clifton, Henlow and Langford councillor Richard Wenham said: “To balance the books this year and control what promised to be another huge overspend, they’ve resorted to the scorched earth policy of massive in-year job cuts and service reductions.

“The risk register now contains a likelihood of a Section 114 notice, bankruptcy and the terrible implications that will have for residents.”

Leader of the Central Bedfordshire Community Network Group and Independent Biggleswade West councillor Hayley Whitaker explained: “There’s no sugar-coating this. It’s a really awful budget, if you’re a Central Bedfordshire resident.

“The best we can hope to do is to smooth off some of the roughest edges with our amendments.”

Liberal Democrat group leader and Leighton Linslade South councillor Shaun Roberts described what residents who voted for change two years ago have ended up with, listing: “The biggest council tax rise we can do every year, services cut, jobs lost, reserves plummeting.

“Nobody voted for this,” he said. “It’s not all your fault. But what really disturbs me with this administration is that you never take any responsibility for any of it. ‘Don’t blame us’ could be the slogan.

“Last year, for about three months there was war inside the administration, while keeping to the budget seemed to be falling apart.”

Labour group leader and Dunstable North councillor Matt Brennan referred to a £9.4m overspend in the first year and £6.9m this year, adding: “In the two years of Independent control of this council, it’s gone from a strong position of reserves to writing Section 114 in its risk register.”

Councillors approved the revenue budget for 2025/26, with 16 votes in favour, six against and 36 abstentions.