Cabinet has now published its revenue and capital budget proposals for 2025/26 and are inviting those who live and work in Torbay to take a look and feedback on the proposals.  

We currently deliver £380m worth of services to those who live and work in Torbay as well as to those who visit us throughout the year. Not everyone has experience of all these services, but there continues to be a need for all of them. Along with the population living longer and cost of living pressures, we are continuing to experience an increase in the demand for our services as well as an increase in the costs of providing them.  

We are like any business or organisation and are seeing wage and utility costs continue to increase as well. This is also seen in other areas like the regeneration schemes as costs for building materials and labour continues to rise.  

In last year’s budget, we put in long term plans which focussed on specific service areas where budgets were under significant pressures. These areas are also the ones where actions can make the biggest difference, both in terms of for the community and financial sustainability.  

These Financial Sustainability plans agreed last year are having an impact, however more work can be done in these areas so they will remain in place. These plans will continue to focus on children’s social care placements, home to school transport and housing needs.

Whilst it is proposed that new plans will be put in place to ensure the long-term sustainability of the cultural assets of Torre Abbey and Cockington Court. 

Ensuring that you are put at the heart of everything we do, the Cabinet is looking to focus on the following areas in 2025/26: 

Children’s Services 

• Children’s Services budget to increase by £1million to meet the ongoing service demand and the higher than inflation costs for placements. 
• Continued focus on early help, prevention, and Family Hubs, ensuring more children and young people stay within a family-based environment. 
• Continue the work started last year on delivering improved home to school transport provision, while supporting the needs of those who use the service. 

Adult Social Care and Community Services 

• Increase the contract fee to Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to support the pressure they are experiencing in delivering services to vulnerable adults. 
• Following the investment to directly purchase some properties, this has helped to stabilise the costs for temporary accommodation. A further investment of £50,000 to this budget will be added to meet the pressures of inflation.
• Commit £100,000 to the work in preventing homelessness with a focus on helping people to maintain stable, sustainable, self-funded housing through the right targeted intervention. 

Pride in Torbay 

• Operation Brighter Bay will continue, with a further investment of £200,000 per year, which will be on top of the £300,000 already committed. This is to bring the three towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham up to a standard to be proud of. Like last year, this includes increases in grass cutting, keeping kerbsides weed free, improving road marking, cleaning of town centres, and repairing of potholes. A team of lengthsmen will be created. 
• Like Brighter Bay, Operation Town Centre’s will see a further investment of £200,000 per year, along with the £300,000 already committed, to continue the work in tackling anti-social behaviour and its causes. This will be used to widen the work of the enforcement team, enhanced CCTV operations and bringing forward a new Town Centres Manager, who will work in all three towns. 
• Allocate a further £400,000 to the repairs and maintenance budget to help address the identified needs across our portfolio of assets. 

The Capital plan includes: 

• Continue working with our Regeneration Partner to deliver priority outcomes for Town Centre regeneration and affordable housing, 
• Projects underway include Paignton and Preston Promenade, Oldway Mansion, Hotels to Homes and St Kilda’s.

We will continue to use our resources to best effects. This will include investing in services like the Legal Services team, increasing fees and charges to reflect the cost-of-service delivery and increasing the budget for insurance and IT licences to meet the higher than inflation costs. 

More information on the proposals 

Children’s Services 

The continuous improvement journey within Children’s Services remains crucial to our medium term financial stability. As a result of significant improvements, the service is in a far more financially stable place than in previous years. 

However, Children’s Services does remain vulnerable to changes in demand and the costs, particularly around residential care where relatively small changes in numbers can have a significant financial impact. Because of this, it is being proposed that next year’s budget is increased by £1million. An increase of £100,000 for Section 17 costs is proposed, which is to support children and families in need,  

Adult Social Care 

Integrated health and social care create better outcomes for residents and our partners. This is why the extension of the integrated arrangements with Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust for the delivery of adult social care took place earlier this year. A joint adult social care transformation programme will also continue, and focus will be on elements such as reablement, learning disability support and extra care provision. 

It is being proposed that the contract fee with the Foundation Trust includes an increase by the value of the Adult Social Care Council Tax Precept of 2%, which is currently estimated as £1.785m for 2025/26. Recognising that spend is currently well in excess of the budget, we have also committed a further increase over the next two years. This increase, together with the transformation programme, will seek to address the significant gap between the amount that we pay for adult social care and what the Trust spends on the integrated services. 

Pride in Torbay 

It is proposed that Operation Town Centres and Operation Brighter Bay, which were both established last year, will see further investment of £400,000, taking the total additional budget allocated over the last two years to £500,000 for each operation.  

For Operation Town Centres this extra funding will support the ongoing enforcement work against those who engage in anti-social behaviour and environmental crime. This Operation also seeks to provide greater assistance to individuals needing our help and support. 

For Operation Brighter Bay, the funding will contribute to making our Bay more attractive and safer. This is by improving the overall look and feel of the streets and general environment around Torbay, benefiting both residents and visitors to the Bay. 

An additional £100,000 is proposed to be made available to increase the number of planning Enforcement Officers. Additional staff will ensure caseloads are more appropriate and the number of open cases can be reduced and maintained at reasonable levels, especially in the light of changes introduced by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act. 

We have been carrying out surveys on the condition of our buildings and assets. It has highlighted the need for maintenance, so building on the £200,000 increase to the current year’s base budget, it is proposed that a further £400,000 is added to next year’s budget to help stabilise their current condition and make some progress to address the identified backlog in repairs and maintenance. 

Will Council Tax need to rise and what support is available? 

This draft budget is proposing to increase Council Tax this year. The reason is, that like any business or organisation, the cost-of-living crisis is also having a significant impact on us as a whole. The costs for providing services which all Torbay residents benefit from on a day-to-day basis continues to increase. 

To ensure we can continue to deliver services in the future, Cabinet, like many other Councils across the UK, are looking to increase Council Tax. Torbay though won’t be increasing it by the maximum level set by Government. Like last year, it recognises the financial burdens that households are continuing to face. 

At the moment, Government has capped the maximum increase that Councils can increase Council Tax to 2.99%. In Torbay though, the increase proposed is 2.75%. In recognition of the pressures in adult social care, it is proposed that the 2% adult social care precept is charged and passed directly to the Foundation Trust. This makes the proposed total Council Tax increase 4.75%.  

As always, this isn’t a decision that has been taken lightly. The income from Council Tax though is vital and supports the services that we deliver and that are valued by the community.

Each 1% increase in Council Tax generates £840,000 of income and it is the only means that we have to raise additional funding for place-based and housing services.

Cllr David Thomas, Leader of Torbay Council, said; “As we present our second set of budget proposals, our approach follows the same as last year. We will continue to focus on the ongoing revenue pressures and delivering against our financial sustainability plans and our Capital Investment Plan. We will be doing this while ensuring we concentrate on the things that our residents have told us matter to them. Our Children and Adult Social Care budgets continue to dominate our attention and this budget provides, where necessary, increased resources to maintain these vital services. 

“There has been a regular drumbeat across the country over the past few years of Councils reporting financial difficulties and having to drastically reduce services. Thankfully, because of our thorough and careful financial management, we have a strong grasp on our finances and are in a secure financial position. We continue to be committed to delivering the best services that we can within our means. 

“For another year there are no significant changes to the services we provide in this draft budget. The Financial Sustainability Plans which we introduced last year are helping to make sure that our high-cost budget items remain on track and innovative solutions are explored and delivered so we provide the best outcomes we can.” 

The budget proposals are now available on our budget webpage - www.torbay.gov.uk/budget-202526   

The consultation will run from midday on Wednesday 27 November until midnight on Sunday 12 January. 

Have your say on the budget proposals from Wednesday at www.torbay.gov.uk/consultations 

If you would like a copy of the consultation in another format, like a printed version, please email engagement@torbay.gov.uk or call 01803 201201