County Council budget shortfall could leave schools picking up the tab
20/01/2026
The council’s finance chief has blamed the government
Schools in Oxfordshire run directly by the county council could face increased budget pressures next year if they are forced to absorb the costs of the council’s school improvement team.
That’s if a proposed budget change goes ahead as the County Council looks to plug a £1.5m gap in its finances.
They say by making schools pay for the team which helps improve standards, rather that funding the service itself, they can save £100,000.
To balance the books savings of to close the £5.4m are needed. Around £3.9m has already been found by setting less money aside for pay inflation, assuming more money will be accumulated in bank interest on money waiting to be spent on services and by reducing contingency funding.
Other measures to reduce the remaining £1.5n gap include reducing the operating costs for transport services in adult social care, children’s services and home to school transport by seeking efficiencies with taxi and bus companies. This could save £250,000.
A further £0.5m could be recouped by reducing the amount of allowance for Disability Related Expenditure from 35 percent to 25 percent.
Councillor Dan Levy, Cabinet Member for Property, Finance and Transformation, said “The government has cut grant funding and assumed the council will make up most of the difference with maximum Council Tax rises. The effect of this is that we will have to put up Council Tax by 4.99% each year, but a lot of this money will immediately be subtracted by the government and sent elsewhere. This is both financially difficult and hard to square with local accountability and choice. Even with 4.99% Council Tax rises, the effect will be that Oxfordshire will have less money to spend on services for residents.
“Money is being redistributed away from Oxfordshire and other areas on a large scale by the government. There will be very real impacts on our budgets and our services in future.
“We respect the government’s desire to put extra money into areas of the country that have higher levels of deprivation. However, do not think this should be at the expense of Oxfordshire and its residents.”
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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