West Northants council tax agreed
27/02/2026
Residents face an increase of £94.42 for a Band D property
by Nadia Lincoln, Local Democracy Reporter
Council tax bills for everyone in West Northamptonshire will go up from April, as a 4.95 per cent council tax increase was approved in the first-ever budget set by Reform UK.
This will take the average charge for a band D property up to £1,959.40, which is an annual increase of £92.42. People’s council tax bill will also include other contributions to parish and town councils and a precept to the police and fire services, which are set separately.
Proposing the budget to the chamber, Cllr John Slope, cabinet member for finance, called the decision a “significant moment”, with it being the first budget the administration has set since Reform took office in May last year.
He told the chamber: “Our task has been to stabilise, to protect services and to begin carefully and responsibly the work of restoring financial health. I believe this budget does exactly that.
“Councils across England are navigating the storm of rising demand for adult and children’s social care, a SEND fund system that is broken nationally, soaring costs of temporary accommodation and inflation that has run well ahead of historic grant assumptions.
“Let me acknowledge what a 4.95 per cent increase in council tax means in practice. For a band D household, that’s £1.78 a week – less than a bus fare. I do not pretend that is nothing to families managing tight budgets, but the alternative, a lower increase on an already debt-laden authority facing rapidly rising demand, would not be responsible.
“This is a budget that does what it needs to do. It is balanced, it is legal, it protects the most vulnerable residents, it delivers significant efficiencies while maintaining statutory services, it strengthens our contingency, and it responds to what residents told us in one of the most engaged budget consultations this council has run.”
The £464.3m budget was approved at a full council meeting at the Northampton Guildhall on Thursday, February 26. West Northants Council (WNC) says the £64.3m growth in the budget will account for increased demand in services and is required to protect current service levels.
In-year savings of £29m are also proposed in the 2026/27 budget plans, which the council says will need to be delivered in order to maintain and protect services as much as possible. A £10m contingency budget has also been set aside to manage unforeseen risks within the year, with the council adding that it has “proved vital over the past few years” to mitigate pressures.
‘Promise everything. Deliver nothing.’
Leader of the opposition, Cllr Daniel Lister (Conservative), warned Reform UK members sat opposite that they would have to go back to their wards and explain why council tax, parking charges and green bins went up “having voted for a budget that breaks every single one of [their] promises”.
He said: “They promised to cut your taxes. Their first act is to raise council tax to the maximum permitted. They promised a full audit of every deal and every contract. DOGE came, DOGE went home empty-handed.
“They promised to ease the burden on residents. Instead, they proposed parking charges which provoked 15,000 petition signatures and forced a chaotic U-turn, only made possible when a government windfall gave them cover.
“Promise everything. Deliver nothing.”
Labour group leader Sally Keeble added: “This was an opportunity for a reset of this council to set aside the legacy of 20 Tory years, in which local government here was driven to near bankruptcy, had services literally taken away, and presided over a housing service that failed.
“Reform have the advantage of a fair funding settlement from a Labour government that provided extra money for the first time, recognising some of the need of our community.
“Frankly, this budget of yours doesn’t cut it. It’s more of the same. It’s salami-slicing services whilst you stash that extra £6.5 million in the bank.”
Cllr Jonathan Harris, Lib Dem leader on West Northants, said: “Council tax increases are part of the picture, but as the administration has discovered, making promises not to raise them and doing the exact opposite isn’t popular.
“Where increases are applied, people have, rightly, expectations for service improvement or at the very least for things not to get worse. As for many in our area, improvements are not their lived experiences.”
Cllr Ian McCord (Independent), who is the chair of budget scrutiny, raised concerns with limited confidence for children’s and adults’ social care staying on budget next year due to open-ended demand, which “forces every other part of the council to stretch, squeeze, and support the pressure”.
“Given the early fireworks and the bold pledges to cut waste, I must confess I was expecting ‘Arnull’s Agenda for the Annihilation of Avoidable Waste’ in full technicolour,” he told the meeting.
“Alas, what we’ve actually been given looks remarkably like last year’s Tory budget wearing a slightly different tie. Continuity may be comforting, but I had hoped for at least one moment of political fireworks.”
Longstanding independent councillor Julue Davenport also spoke against the administration’s budget, saying it was “built on political fraud”.
Addressing the benches opposite, she said: “You speak often about your mandate, but getting people to vote for everything they want is easy. Delivery is what counts and on delivery you’ve failed.
“Residents deserve honesty, not your slogans. This is not about theatrics, this is about accountability.”
Opposition parties propose changes to the budget
All three opposition groups on the council proposed a suite of budget amendments. All proposals had to be scrutinised by the council’s chief finance officer to appear before the chamber.
The first set of proposals from the Conservatives included an extra £1 million yearly committment to spending on highways, plans to put in place three hours free parking in the Mayorhold car park in Northampton, as well as keeping parking free for blue badge holders, and funding towards a ‘councillor empowerment fund’ which would let ward members spend up to £5,000 to support community groups, voluntary organisations and charities in their area.
They said this would be fully funded through cutting 125 vacant positions from the council, saving £5 million, as well as cutting special responsibility allowances for council committee chairs and freezing councillor allowance uplifts.
Next, the Labour group put forward their budget amendments which included plans for two new family hubs in areas with the greatest need in Northampton, discounts on termly bus travel for school children, setting up a social housing unit to increase the number of homes built, and £60k of funding to go towards supporting the deaf community after the closure of local charity DeafConnect.
The group said the programme of works would be funded through the additional £6.5m in government funding since the draft budget, as well as some income generation measures, such as imposing a waste levy on HMO landlords and changes to the procurement of expensive temporary accommodation.
Lastly, the Liberal Democrats set out their ideas for the 2026/27 budget, including a study into how West Northants can capitalise on booming industries such as film, reversing a cut to community grants in the budget by committing £62k to be offered to local groups, committing capital funding to purchase social homes for the council’s social housing stock. and supporting children’s mental health in schools through Action for Happiness.
The amendments would also have been funded through extra government funding, savings from slashing special responsibility allowances for committee chairs and removing a two per cent pay rise to all councillors’ allowances in 2026/27.
While criticising some of the amendments, Cllr Slope acknowledged that there were some proposals from the opposition that had merit and said that work could be done in the year to explore them more through business cases.
He added: “The amendments before us reflect real issues that residents care about and I don’t dismiss them. I want to be clear, exploration is not adoption and a budget amendment is not the right vehicle for taking an uncosted aspiration.”
All three amendments were voted on by the chamber in full, but all ultimately fell.
‘This is a budget grounded in reality’
Reflecting on his administration’s first budget, Council leader Mark Arnull said: “This hasn’t been an easy budget to prepare. This budget tonight prioritises the residents that rely on us most, it protects the frontline services, it strengthens safeguarding and it ensures that health remains available where it is most urgently needed.
“This is a budget grounded in reality. Over the last few months, we’ve been meticulously reviewing every area of expenditure, every efficiency, every opportunity to deliver services more effectively.
“We’re taking responsible decisions now to avoid more severe consequences later.
“Most importantly, I want to reaffirm my commitment to the people of West Northamptonshire that we stood by last year. We never pledged to cut council tax, despite many protestations that we did.
“We are delivering responsibly for our residents and we will continue to do so.”
The 2026/27 budget, including the 4.95 per cent council tax increase, was voted on by the council and received 38 members in favour, 31 against and one abstention.
A 4.8 per cent rise in rent increases for social housing tenants was also approved by WNC in its Housing Revenue Account.
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
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