Budget 2027 to 2028 consultation

Increasing Council Tax and Social Care Precept

We are consulting you on the level of Council Tax and Social Care Precept for next year, April 2027 to March 2028.

For 2027 to 2028, we propose to increase core Council Tax by 3% and to add a 2% Social Care Precept to help pay for social care. This would be a 5% increase in total compared to this year, 2026 to 2027.

The UK Government expects councils to increase overall Council Tax levels by this amount each year as part of the overall funding package for local authorities. It is the amount we need to help balance the Revenue Budget. It is the maximum that is allowed without a local referendum, and it is the amount we have assumed in our financial forecast.

Increasing Council Tax and Social Care Precept would be an important part of how we can balance the budget, but is not enough on its own. If we raise Council Tax by 3% and set Social Care Precept at 2%, we forecast that there will be a remaining budget gap of £26.0 million. We have therefore looked at further ways to save money or increase income wherever we can to bridge this budget gap.

Reducing costs and increasing income

Our savings proposals

We have 43 new proposals for ways we can reduce costs and increase income, while continuing to deliver valued services to the people of Bristol. These proposals would raise £22.5 million in 2027 to 2028. This would help to reduce the budget gap next year and financial pressures in the later years of our 5‑year forecast. These new savings are in addition to 38 savings for 2027 to 2028 that were announced in previous budgets.

The proposals include:

• helping children, young people and adults stay independent through earlier support and prevention
• developing more local accommodation, care and support options to reduce reliance on expensive external provision
• improving the way services are commissioned, funded and delivered, including working with NHS, housing and community partners
• making better use of council assets, technology and new ways of working to improve efficiency and reduce costs
• increasing income and securing external funding to support services and reduce pressure on council budgets

In this consultation, we ask for your views on 5 of the new proposals that could affect your experience of services. We are not asking about the other proposals because we do not think they are likely to affect services the council provides, or because we have consulted on them before.

Additional savings that may be needed

If we increase Council Tax by 3% and add a Social Care Precept of 2%, and make all of the proposed savings, there would still be a budget gap, based on our latest forecasts.

We may change our savings proposals when we consider feedback from the consultation and we will also continue to review other financial pressures between now and the budget setting in February 2027.

We are therefore continuing to explore additional ways we can reduce costs and increase income to make sure we can set a balanced and legal budget in February 2027. We will undertake further public consultation as needed on the specific details of additional savings proposals, and you will have the opportunity to provide your feedback.

If we don’t increase Council Tax by 3% and add a Social Care Precept of 2%, then the funding gap for our services will be greater than the £26.0 million discussed throughout this consultation, and further reductions and savings proposals will be needed to set a balanced budget. Each 1% less than a 5% increase would add £3.2 million to the budget gap.

Decisions on how we balance the budget

The final decision on the council’s budget for the year April 2027 to March 2028, including levels of Council Tax and Social Care Precept and the proposals for savings, will be made by Full Council in February 2027. Full Council will consider the outcome of this consultation when making its decisions. Some savings proposals may be approved as part of the budget subject to further consultation. Where further consultation is required, the outcome of that consultation will be taken into account before a final decision is made on how the proposal is implemented.

Equality considerations

As part of our budget-setting process, we need to consider how the proposed changes could affect people differently because of their background or other circumstances, for example people in our more deprived communities.

We have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to consider the impacts of our proposals on individuals based on the following:

• age
• Disability
• race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• religion or belief
• sex
• gender reassignment
• sexual orientation
• being married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on maternity leave

These are called ‘protected characteristics’.

We recognise that increases to Council Tax and the Social Care Precept and changes to services we provide can have a greater impact on certain groups, including low-income households, Disabled people, people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, women, particularly single parents, and older residents on fixed incomes, who may feel the effects of financial pressure more acutely. This could potentially widen existing inequalities, especially for those already facing financial challenges or relying on vital services. However, it is essential to balance this with the need to ensure sufficient funding for the services that support those with the greatest need.

There is a question in the survey which will ask you if the proposals would have a different impact on you because of your protected characteristics. We have described how the council provides help for low-income households to pay their Council Tax bills in the Further information section on the Ask Bristol budget consultation page.

We will publish full equality impact assessments for consideration by the council’s Strategy and Resources Policy Committee on 18 January 2027, before it recommends the budget to Full Council for a final decision.

This information will ensure decision makers can have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty. It will show any likely disproportionate or negative impacts, and what the council could do to reduce negative effects for citizens, service users and employees on the basis of their protected and other relevant characteristics.

We will also provide a cumulative equalities impact assessment to look at the potential combined equality impacts of all the proposed savings and key budget decisions taken together, to identify any compound issues or disparities, and what we can do to mitigate them. This will include consideration of any potential impacts for our workforce as well as service users and citizens.