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Cabinet Budget Proposals 2025/26 - 2028/29

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Seeking your views

The Cabinet would like to hear from you about the choices ahead.

The proposals for spending and saving are contained in the Financial Strategy and Budget Proposals 2025/26 (PDF, 2 MB) document.

The Cabinet have made a formal decision on proposals to Council on 6 February 2025 at its meeting.

The proposals confirmed by Cabinet will be presented to the Council at its meeting on 6 March 2025 at 2pm in the Town Hall.

The Council meeting will receive a full document, setting out the Council's financial strategy and Budget Proposals 2025/26.

Consultation responses received up to that date will also be included.

Any responses to this consultation received by 5 March 2025 will be presented to Members for the Budget Council meeting on 6 March 2025.

The City Council's Budget Proposals for 2025/26 - 2028/29

We continue to support our residents, communities, and businesses through what is still a challenging time for many due to the rising costs of living resulting in significant social, economic and health impacts.

Through our partnership working with external agencies such as Public Health and the NHS, we are in a stronger position than before, as relationships strengthen, and this is of great benefit to the Council and residents alike. During the last year we have established an Anchor Partnership which including a wide range of public, voluntary, community and business sector partners. By working in partnership with this broad anchor partnership base we can seek to deliver so much more for all our diverse communities.

The Preston Regeneration Board brings together the city and county councils along with the University of Lancashire and Preston Partnership, representing the business and public sector. Together we have developed our Preston 35 - A Regeneration Plan for Preston (2024 - 2035) (PDF, 3 MB). An ambitious ten year strategy for our city. Through working with our most vulnerable residents, we understand their needs better than ever and have built up trust with people who have reached out to the Council to help them through difficult times.  We continue to support all of our residents who need help navigating through ongoing challenges.

We continue to pursue our ambitious regeneration agenda for Preston via our Towns Fund Projects, particularly Animate, a new council-owned £45m leisure and entertainment complex for the city centre, The Harris Re-Imagining project, that will transform our treasured Harris Museum and Art Gallery, continued support for Preston's Youth Zone and the renewal of other Harris Quarter heritage buildings such as Amounderness House, sees the Council taking a direct role in regenerating our city.

We are delivering £20m of Levelling Up funding awarded by the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DULHC).  Preston's bid - 'Active Travel: Transforming our Community Infrastructure', which aims to bring a better quality of life, health and wellbeing benefits to our residents.

We have made excellent progress on delivering Preston's £5.2m funding allocation from the Government's UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is helping us to work closer with, and invest in our communities, address the climate emergency, strengthen local business, the economy and innovation ecosystem, and support our most vulnerable residents back into employment with practical skills and training.

We remain committed to our ambitious Community Wealth Building Agenda to address local inequalities and put ownership in a wider number of hands. Our work to promote the 'Preston Model' includes important work across the city with projects and initiatives such as our revised progressive social value procurement framework, promoting a Real Living Wage, North West Mutual Bank, and many other activities that develop a more shared, democratic local economy.  We are proud to be progressing the Climate Change Agenda in Preston and our Climate Policy Officers continue to reach out to colleagues, out city-wide partners and our communities to better understand what role we can play to tackle the climate crisis.

Our ambition and unfailing dedication to Preston remains high.  We continue to strive for a vibrant, successful future and are proud to serve this City and of the work we, alongside our partners, continue to achieve.

I believe that we continue to deliver high-quality frontline services to Preston's residents.

On 6 March 2025 the Council will agree its budget for 2025/26.  The Council is consulting on the budget proposals which includes increasing the Council Tax by 2.99% in 2025/26.  This will mean an increase by 20p per week for a Band D property which will help to safeguard services.

The greatest challenge for the Council is achieving financial stability, ensuring we have a position where we do not spend more than our income.  We must do this because we cannot continue to bridge the gap with reserves which only represent a short term fix and would soon be exhausted.

Consulting on the budget proposals

On 6 March 2025 the Council will agree its budget for 2025/26. The Council now wishes to consult on the budget proposals which includes:

  • Increasing the Council Tax by 2.99% in 2025/26. This will mean an increase by 20p per week for a Band D property which will help to safeguard services.

  The summary proposals for 2025/26 to 2028/29 are set out in the Financial Strategy and Budget Proposals 2025/26 (PDF, 2 MB) document.

Our ambitions remain high and we are proud to serve this City and of the work we, alongside partners, continue to achieve.

How to make a comment 

Comments on these proposals would be welcomed and can be made through the following ways:

Any responses received by 5 March 2025 will be presented to Members at Budget Council on 6 March 2025.

Further consultation will be undertaken when detailed proposals are confirmed.

Councillor Matthew Brown - Leader of the Council.

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