Hendon Town Hall
Barnet Council’s Leader has welcomed the government’s budget calling it “a step in the right direction for Barnet” but warning that there is still more work to be done to stabilise the council’s finances.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced core spending power for local authorities will increase by 3.2% in real terms in 2025/26. This includes £1.3bn of new grant funding (£600m for social care and £700m for general services). The detail of how much Barnet will receive will not be confirmed until the provisional local government finance settlement is published in December.
She also announced £1bn extra of targeted funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services for school pupils and other alternative provision such as tackling homelessness – some of the statutory services under the most severe pressure in Barnet.
There will also be an extension to the Household Support Fund for a further year, helping to support some of the poorest people in Barnet, as well as more certainty on social rent levels, with rents to rise by CPI +1% for five years and an additional £500m investment in the Affordable Homes Programme to boost housebuilding.
Reforms to Right to Buy were also announced, allowing councils to retain 100% of receipts to invest in building new council homes, helping Barnet to achieve its target of 1,000 new homes over the four years to 2026.
The Chancellor also unveiled £500m to councils to fix roads and potholes, supporting the £97m funding the council has already committed to investing in Barnet’s roads.
Barnet Leader, Cllr Barry Rawlings, welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement. He said: “This budget is a step in the right direction for Barnet but after 14 years of significant underfunding, our financial situation remains challenging.
“While the headline announcement brings us some welcome relief, this doesn’t change the need for us to make efficiency savings, nor to continue to transform our services.
“It’s important to make sure all London councils are funded properly but the challenges for outer London boroughs like Barnet are particularly acute. We have historically fared badly in budget settlements and will be asking government for a fairer share of the funding cake in next year’s Comprehensive Spending Review.”
Cllr Rawlings also welcomed the move away from one-year spending settlements to multi-year funding for local government from 2026-27.
“This will really help us to plan ahead,” he said. “It will give us the security of knowing how much government grant we will get for a three-year period, allowing us to better plan how and when to deliver the priorities set in Our Plan for Barnet.”
Note to editors
Like other local authorities, Barnet is facing severe financial pressures caused by an increase in demand for statutory services, while the council’s budget has reduced in real terms by over 50% since 2010.
In September, the council announced it was forecasting an overspend in this financial year of £20m - around 5% of the council’s overall general budget.
The overspend is caused largely by increasing demand for services that the council has a legal duty to provide such as adult and children’s social care, SEND and temporary accommodation.
The council has taken early action to bring this year’s budget under control, with budget recovery plans in place for each directorate and all non-essential spend frozen, helping the council to identify around £12m in savings.
Further information on the council’s medium term financial position – for 2025/26 onwards - will go to Cabinet on 18 November.