We agreed our budget for the next financial year, and set out how services will be funded from April 2026.
Following a vote councillors approved spending plans for 2026/27 at the Full Council meeting today (Tuesday 24 February) and agreed a 4.99 per cent increase on our council tax share.
This amounts to £89.91 a year (£1.73 a week) for a Band D property for the county council’s share (precept).
This would result in a council tax requirement for the authority of just over £610 million for 26/27.
To balance the position, the authority has to deliver £38.98 million of savings, alternative funding or additional income.
The budget explains how the council will continue to support local services at a time when costs are rising and demand for help is increasing.
The council will spend £839.2 million on day‑to‑day services next year. This is £33.2 million more (4.1 per cent) than in 2025/26.
Councillors also agreed a £770.6 million capital investment programme covering the five years from 2026/27 to 2030/31.
This money will be used for major projects such as road repairs, new school places, support for children with special educational needs, and improvements to council buildings across Devon.
Roads and transport
Spending on highways maintenance will rise to £32.4 million in 2026/27, an increase of £2 million.
Full Council also agreed an additional £4 million investment for highways maintenance over the next financial year.
This will pay for more road repairs, better drainage, clearing roadside gullies and protecting Devon’s road network.
This is all part of the Climate Change, Environment and Transport budget of £96.9 million.
Additionally over the next five years, £546.1 million in total will be invested in highways. This includes an extra £55 million over five years for preventative maintenance.
Children and families
The Children and families budget will see the largest increase in funding across the council.
Spending will rise to £268 million in 2026/27, an increase of £19.1 million. This reflects growing pressure on children’s social care, early help for families, and support for children who cannot live at home.
Children and families – capital investment
A total of £76.5 million will be invested over five years in children’s homes, school expansions and specialist education provision.
Helping children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities remains a key priority.
Over the next five years, £25.8 million will be spent on new and expanded specialist schools to create more places for children who need extra support.
Adult social care
Adult social care continues to be the council’s biggest area of spending.
The budget for adult social care will rise to £395.9 million in 2026/27, an increase of £9.9 million, or 2.6 per cent. This helps cover rising costs, including higher wages for care staff.
The council will also invest £51.6 million over five years to help adults live independently, including adaptations to homes and investment in care facilities and equipment.
Public health, communities and libraries
The council will receive £37.7 million to support public health services, including help with drug and alcohol misuse and stop‑smoking services.
Spending on community services and libraries will total £14.4 million in 2026/27.
Full council also agreed additional funding of £225,000 to restore the book fund to £500,000 and an extra £425,000 to support general library delivery during transition.
Together, these total £650,000, and reverses the proposed efficiency saving within the original libraries budget resulting in a libraries budget of more than £7 million.
In addition, a £1 million reserve for Libraries and Rural Hubs will be established to support genuine transformation and community led improvement.
Additional funding
The council also approved targeted funding which reflects priorities that have arisen through meetings of the council’s scrutiny committees, community feedback and consultations with businesses and voluntary organisations.
These include an additional £600,000 to improve the speed in which Education Health Care Plans are delivered; £300,000 additional foster care support; £106,000 to strengthen domestic abuse provision; increase of each councillor’s locality budget to £10,000.
There is also an additional £500,000 for post-16 and foster care transport.
Councillor James Buczkowski, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance said:
“This budget focuses on the services people rely on most, particularly support for children, vulnerable adults and the condition of our roads.
“Raising council tax is never taken lightly however demand for services, particularly for vulnerable children and adults, continues to rise.
“We are investing where the need is greatest, while being realistic about the financial challenges councils continue to face. Our priority is to protect essential services and make sure public money is spent carefully and responsibly.
“Overall, the day to day services budget is increasing by £33.2million, however inflation and extra demand account for almost all of that increase.
“This is a budget built on fiscal responsibility.”
Councillor Michael Fife-Cook, Leader of the Reform Group, said:
“In fairness, this isn’t a bad budget. There’s a lot in it we would have willingly supported but I do think is a very safe budget.
“As a businessperson if I saw the amount of debt we have I would to start at zero and look at where every single penny is spent.
“We spend massive amounts of money on childrens and adults services and we still have people we are failing and if we are failing people we have to do better.
“Perhaps we just need a different way of doing things without continually putting our hands into the pockets of local people.”
Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, the Leader of the Green group, said:
“I think its commendable we have been able to deliver an effective budget given the appalling situation from government that continues to be so stingy and not recognise how they should be funding rural services.
“If this government took seriously with what’s happening with our environment and the climate emergency I think we would see very different levels of support.
“Somehow we seem to be viewed as a wealthy shire county when we have large areas of deprivation that we are trying to support.”
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Leader of the Conservative Group, said:
“We are all elected for a reason, to do the best we can for our communities.
“We are all hamstrung by the amount of money we get from Government. We all know the settlement is failing to meet the needs of our residents and however you cut that up there is never going to be enough to do everything we want to do.
“I think (this) what has been proposed is the best possible budget with the money available. We support the budget.”
The budget will take effect from April 2026 and will guide how the council spends and invests money over the coming year.