Adur council’s 2025/2026 budget approved

The full council approved the council’s 2025/26 revenue and capital budgets, at a special budget meeting on Thursday, February 20.

This included a maximum council tax rise of 2.99 per cent, meeting a net budget requirement of £11,175,110.

This also led to a budget surplus of £162,000 to be transferred to the council’s reserves, expected to be sitting at £2.6million as of March 31, 2025.

The joint service budget the council runs with Worthing Borough Council saw £778,600 in cuts and savings for Adur’s contribution for 2025/26, with £472,334 of this coming from a reduction in temporary accommodation costs.

Cuts and savings to the joint services over two years, through an organisational redesign programme, reached £4,350,300 in total across the two councils.

Adur council leader Jeremy Gardner (Lab, St Mary’s) said the new administration had come into the budget with a ‘fresh’ perspective after taking control of the council in May last year, and said the council was ‘being careful’ with public funds.

“We have spent within our means this year but like every other organisation and person in the country we face inflation”, he said.

“We also have increasing demands on our services including and especially growing numbers of local residents at risk of homelessness who we must help.

“This year we partnered with Southern Water in a national first, 4,500 residents were auto-enrolled onto the Southern Water essentials tariff, which means each saved around £177 per year.

“In the coming year we will complete 68 new council homes, we’re improving maintenance and repair service in existing council properties who have experienced poor service for years.

“A full report with the progress made on Adur Homes is going to be produced at the end of the two-year improvement plan, prepared for the regulator in the coming year.

“This council will be continuing until 2028, we have a lot to do in that time to provide services to make Adur greener and fairer. But perhaps the best is to come.”

Cllr Gardner said a tenant satisfaction survey for Adur Homes had shown improvement in repairs and maintenance, and that all gas, electrical and alarm systems were being brought up to the regulator’s standards.

Opposition leader Neil Parkin (Con, Hillside) said council officers sometimes had to ‘sweat blood’ to balance a budget, criticising the administration for lacking commitment to the Buckingham Park Pavillion scheme.

“It was interesting to note that presumably by the leader’s speech, the Buckingham Park Pavillion isn’t going to happen, because it wasn’t mentioned – which is a shame because we left you enough money for it, it was all figured out.

“We look forward to new ideas coming from the administration. It was interesting about the winter fuel payment, helping 200 people, you’ve only 19,000 more to go in Adur.

“Regarding tenant satisfaction surveys, do not take any notice of those, do go out and find out from the tenants yourselves.

“For years we were given statistics where 95 per cent of the tenants were satisfied, and the number of emails and complaints we’re getting.

Cllr Parkin said it was good to see new council homes being finished, saying ‘Rome was built quicker than some of those houses were’.

Shoreham Beach Residents Association (SBRA) leader Joss Loader (Ind, Marine), said although they supported the budget, the council could see none of the benefits of its redesign scheme thanks to the government’s devolution plans.

“We can’t help but be concerned that this council is bearing some of the redesign costs, but on the face of it stands to reap none, or little of, the rewards as the projections fall into years after this organsation’s demise, during the race to devolution”, she said.

“We’re grateful that grant funding has been applied to improve the service road at Beach Green and to repair the boardwalk.

“Sadly, we still have no firm commitment to upgrading the public toilet block to even a minimum standard, and we face another summer of under provision, possible closure and very understandable complaints.

“We would like to see a concrete commitment to building the sports pavilion in Buckingham Park, rather than it apparently being sidelined as aspirational.

“We accept that a budget is part fact, party crystal ball gazing and a dose of very sound judgement from our officers”.

Adur Greens member Gerry Thompson (Green, St Nicholas) said his party was grateful for the ‘exhaustive’ budget report, saying they welcomed continued commitment to council’s net zero schemes.

In a question before the debate, Cllr Parkin asked Cllr Gardner is any secret devolution meetings had been held to form a new unitary authority with Brighton & Hove, Worthing, Lewes, and Eastbourne.

Cllr Gardner said he was not aware of any such meeting, adding he had met with ‘every council leader’ across East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove to discuss devolution, saying a meeting of the full Adur council would likely be held to discuss plans once agreed.