'Hidden risks' vs 'posturing word salad': Lib Dems and Tories face off over Bucks budget

Buckinghamshire Council has approved its budget and a council tax raise of 4.99 per cent for the year – the highest it can with a referendum or special Government permission.

Much has been said about Buck’s financial position and, despite rumblings of discontent across the chamber, its budget for the coming year was voted through by a respectable margin.

Councillor Steven Broadbent, leader of the council (Con), opened the debate at full council on Wednesday (February 25) by saying 2026/27 was ‘not a routine year.’

Rather, it is a year that would define how Bucks council ‘protects the vulnerable’ and upholds its financial stability in the face of ‘seismic changes’.

This is, he said, a budget ‘shaped by turbulence at the national level.’

Throughout the meeting, councillors repeatedly expressed the view that the Labour government has shown itself to be ‘out to get Buckinghamshire’.

They remain outraged over the Fair Funding Review - which some councillors said amounted to £44million being ‘stolen’ from Bucks.

However, not all councillors apportioned all the blame to the Government.

In a presentation, leader of the Lib Dems Cllr Susan Morgan said the Tory administration’s 2026/27 budget ‘falls short in vision’, and this ‘permeates every portfolio’.

The cracks ‘are beginning to show, literally’ in the highways sector, she said, with Buckinghamshire suffering greatly from potholes.

Cllr Morgan called for ‘full forensic review’ of the highways budget so residents can ‘see the facts’ behind the decisions. She said that financial risks from asset sales were being ‘hidden’, undermining transparency.

She added that the ‘real risks’ from potential changes in the economy were not fully accounted for in the budget.

Cllr Morgan further lambasted the administration for its ‘limited’ engagement with residents.

Concluding, she said the budget was full of ‘short term fixes and opaque assumptions’ and proposed that the full council not support it.

Tories criticised the speech, saying the Lib Dems were ‘posturing’.

They said that, though there had been ‘thoughtful’ cross-party collaboration during the budget scrutiny process, this seemed to have vanished at full council debate.

Cllr Simon Rouse (Con, Chalfont St Giles & Little Chalfont) characterised Cllr Morgan’s presentation as a ‘word salad’ of bullet points that ‘collapse’ when it comes to detail.

Echoing this, fellow Conservative for the same ward, Cllr Martin Tett, said the Lib Dems had plenty of opportunity to put forward alternative ideas earlier, but did not.

They had offered ‘no spending plans, no alternative budget,’ he said.

Councillors hearing each other speak frequently erupted into impassioned replies – prompting the chairman, Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja (Con), to issue warnings that councillors could be removed from the chamber if they continued to be disruptive.

Despite the misgivings of the opposition, the budget was voted through comfortably, with 61 councillors in favour and 27 against.

In an update sent out via newsletter, Cllr Broadbent said that Bucks residents had been ‘let down by central Government’ over its funding changes, and that the council tax rise was necessary to ‘safeguard essential services.’

The increase amounts to an extra £1.86 per week for the average Band D home.

“Since becoming a unitary authority in 2020, we have made significant savings to run a balanced budget, totalling £186million by the end of this financial year,” he wrote.

“Additional savings and efficiencies totalling £109million have been identified over the next three years.

“By the end of the three-year period, the council will have delivered savings of 67 per cent compared to the combined, pre-unitary council budgets from 2020.”