Planning the council's budget
This page explains where our funding comes from, the rules around how it can be spent and the timings for each stage in the budget planning process. You will also find information about how we spend the money we receive and details about how to have your say about our budget.
Each year, we plan and deliver cost-effective services that reflect the priorities in our Council Plan and Our Areas of Focus.
We'd like to hear your views to inform our spending decisions. Please complete our survey to have your say. We're also engaging local organisations across the county, so that we can hear from a wide range of people.
Before you complete the survey, you can find out more about our budgets and the challenges we are facing on this page and on our value for money page.
Try out our budget simulator to see the challenges of balancing Lancashire’s budget and supporting people with the resources we have.
The simulator is for illustrative purposes only. Your choices in the simulator won’t decide the actual budget, but they will help us understand what matters most to you. We will share anonymised insights from the simulator with councillors as part of the process of setting next year's budget. Remember to also fill in our survey to have your say.
Understanding our budget
We're accountable for delivering many services including public health, disposing of waste, and supporting vulnerable children and older people. We’re also responsible for 627 schools, 4,300 miles of roads, 64 libraries, 8 museums, 3 reuse shops and 16 recycling centres.
To deliver these services the council has an annual budget funded from Council Tax, grants, business rates and income.
This video explains the money we receive and how it can be used:
Lancashire County Council is responsible for providing a wide range of essential local services that affect our residents daily lives. Such as, social care, schools, roads, trading standards and waste management, to name a few.
To deliver these services, we need to manage our resources carefully, making sure every penny is spent wisely.
Understanding how we are funded helps explain the decisions we make and how we can improve services for our communities.
The money that pays for the day to day running of all our services is called our Revenue Budget and includes key services, such as, social care, libraries, highways and public health.
This budget is funded from many different sources, including council tax, business rates, government grants and fees and charges.
The money that pays for bigger, longer term spending is called our Capital Budget and includes investment in buildings and facilities, new equipment and improving local areas.
This budget tends to be funded from government grants, contributions from developers and borrowing.
There are strict rules on how this money can be used.
For example, we can't use capital funds, meant for town centre regeneration, to cover day to day running costs, and funds in the capital budget can't be added to the revenue budget.
Each year, we set a revenue and capital budget to ensure we spend this money in a way that best supports our communities.
Importantly, this budget must balance.
We cannot spend more than we have.
The county council works hard to make the most of every penny we have, but rising costs and increasing demand make it challenging to deliver a balanced revenue budget each year, whilst also planning for the future.
This means we sometimes need to make difficult decisions to deliver the right services in the right places, at the right time for people in Lancashire.
How we are funded
We have four main sources of funding:
- Council Tax
- business rates
- government grants
- income from services users
The table below shows how a typical £100 we receive is split between our different sources of funding:
| Funding type | Share per £100 we receive |
|---|---|
| General Council Tax* (excluding Adult Social Care Levy) | £47 |
| Business rates | £21 |
| Grants ringfenced for a specific purpose | £18 |
| Adult Social Care Levy (comes out of Council Tax) | £8 |
| Grants (unringfenced) | £5 |
| Other income | £1 |
*The total Council Tax accounts for £55 out of £100.
How we plan our budget
To help us to set our budget, we look at:
- service needs and rising costs
- potential savings
- expected government funding
Important dates in planning our budget
Budget planning begins around six months before the budget is agreed. At this stage we don't have all the information about the exact level of funding that will become available to us.
November 2025 - January 2026
County councillors and officers consider initial proposals to balance the budget. Starting in November, cabinet sets out initial proposals. More information becomes available when we are given our provisional grant figures from central government before Christmas. During this period, we look at how next year's budget might work and ask for input from the public and other stakeholders. Councillors review the findings of our budget consultation in mid-January.
January 2026
Following our review of the consultation responses and a further session by our Budget and Finance Scrutiny Committee, budget proposals are finalised in the new year.
February 2026
The full budget is reviewed by councillors and is formally considered for decision by cabinet and full council.
April 1 2026
The 2026/27 budget comes into effect.
How our money is spent
Our council spends £2.1 billion each year on services that support people across the county. Some of these services you may know, like recycling centres and road maintenance. Other services you may not know about unless you or someone close to you depends on them. But they are equally important.
Most of our budget goes towards areas like adult and children's social care, education, and transport.
Here are some of the services that we're responsible for:
Education: Schools, admissions, SEND support and home to school transport
Social Care: Support for children, families, older people and vulnerable adults
Highways and Transport: Road maintenance, street lighting, gritting and public transport
Libraries and Museums: 64 public libraries and eight museums
Public Health: Health promotion and wellbeing initiatives
Waste Management: Household waste recycling centres and waste disposal (except bin collections, which district councils look after)
Trading Standards: Consumer protection and business advice
Registration Services: Births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships
Emergency Planning: Preparing for and responding to local emergencies
Youth Services: Support through youth centres and targeted programmes
Other services: Blue Badge scheme, bus passes (NowCard), and environmental management
Here is a breakdown of how £100 of funding we receive would be spent across our main services:
| Service area | Spend per £100* |
|---|---|
| Adult Services | £41.30 |
| Children's Social Care | £13.40 |
| Corporate Services | £7.50 |
| Property, Estates and Facilities Management | £6.30 |
| Public Health | £5.40 |
| Waste Management | £5.40 |
| Business Support functions (for example, IT services) | £5.10 |
| Education and Children's Services (excluding Home to School Transport) | £4.40 |
| Highways | £3.90 |
| Children's Home to School Transport | £3.40 |
| Public and Integrated Transport | £2.40 |
| Economic Development and Business Growth | £0.90 |
| Environment and Planning | £0.50 |
*Figures have been rounded to the nearest £0.10. The budget shown above is gross, meaning it includes capital funding as well as revenue. Capital funding is used for long-term infrastructure projects (for example, road improvements), whereas revenue funding covers day-to-day operational costs.
This year's budget: Financial year 2025/26
We publish information every year. You can view the information on our 2025/26 budget.
Next year's budget: Financial year 2026/27
The council is presently forecasting it will need to save at least £100m over the next three years to ensure that essential services are delivered.
We are seeking your views on the proposals through a consultation survey. The feedback from this survey will be shared with councillors as they make decisions on the budget in February 2026.
We have identified many of these proposals by carrying out an efficiency review across the council. To reduce the impact on our services we focused on reviewing the following:
- Procurement: Reviewing whether greater value for money could be achieved when purchasing goods and services and through effective contract management.
- Property: Identifying opportunities to reshape the council's property estate and reduce costs.
- Digital: Identifying how technology can support the organisation to be more productive.
- Prevention: Supporting more people at an earlier stage and then reducing the need for more intense and costly services.
- Income: Ensuring services fees are at an appropriate level and identifying further opportunities to bring income into the council.
Have your say
We have launched a consultation so that residents, businesses, and community groups can share their views on our budget setting.
To ensure your feedback is included, complete our online budget survey to let us know what you think about each of our proposals.
It should take 10 to 15 minutes to read and respond to. You have until 11:59pm on Tuesday 13 January 2026 to complete the survey.
Our library staff can support you to complete the survey. Find your nearest library.
Accessibility requirements
Other formats are available on request by writing to or emailing us at the addresses below.
Write to us
Budget Survey, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ.
Email us
budgetconsultation@lancashire.gov.uk
Privacy
You can read about how we use the information you provide to us as part of surveys on our privacy notice web page.
Key dates
Survey opens: 3 December 2025
Survey closes: 13 January 2026 at 11:59pm
Budget and Finance Scrutiny meeting: 21 January 2026
Cabinet meeting: 5 February 2026
Budget proposals considered at full council: 26 February 2026
Next steps
We want to be open and listen to your views. After the consultation closes, we'll analyse all feedback to help to shape the final budget. A summary of the findings will be available on this website, showing how your views influenced our decisions.
Following our review of the consultation responses, budget proposals will be finalised in the new year.
If any proposals lead to major changes in services, we’ll hold further engagement before they’re started. Visit our consultation pages to see our current consultations.