West Oxfordshire District Council budget consultation

We are currently building our budget for the 2026 to 2027 financial year and we want your views to help us prioritise where to spend our funding. Being open and transparent about how we spend taxpayers' money is important to us so thank you for taking the time to read about our budget and for giving us your thoughts. 

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, said “We know people care deeply about the services they use every day – from recycling and planning to leisure and housing support. That’s why we want residents to get involved and help shape our budget. We’re managing your money responsibly, and we want to hear where you think we should focus our funding for the year ahead.” 

We would like to ask your views on where we prioritise our spend but first we will provide some information on how the council’s funding works to help you in those decisions. 

How does our budget work? 

The Council receives funding from four main places: 

• Council Tax (37.19%) 
• Government grants (15.75%) 
• Business rates (40.35%) 
• Income from investments (6.71%) 

Over the past decade we have experienced a large drop in the funding we receive, meaning we now have less money to deliver local services. Also, the high inflation over recent years means the cost of running services has increased significantly. This means we need to manage our finances very carefully to continue to provide the services you rely on and also make improvements to the District. 

What we deliver for our residents  

West Oxfordshire District Council receives only 10p in every £1 of your Council Tax to provide 50+ services across the district. Some of these are obvious like waste collection – some are less well known but play a valuable role in supporting communities and the district.  

Some services we have to deliver by law include: 

• Running elections 
• Homelessness prevention 
• Housing advice 
• Council tax and business rates collection 
• Waste collections and recycling 
• Food safety  
• Water sampling 
• Building control 
• Licensing of taxis, gambling premises, alcohol and entertainment licencing, temporary events, animal activities, skin piercing and scrap metal dealers. 
• Local Plans and managing planning applications 

What we deliver for our residents  

West Oxfordshire District Council receives only 10p in every £1 of your Council Tax to provide 50+ services across the district. Some of these are obvious like waste collection – some are less well known but play a valuable role in supporting communities and the district. 

Some services we have to deliver by law include: 

Some services we do not have to deliver by law but we do to support the district: 

There are some council services we do not run and they are delivered by the county council. They include: 

Working to make our services more efficient   

We have been working hard to make our services as efficient as possible so taxpayers get the best value for money. Some of our work includes: 

• Our waste service has a success rate of over 99% thanks to our use of technology to better manage collections 
• Our customer services are ranked in the top 10 in the country and we recently saved £125,000 in delivering the service 
• We have provided many more online forms and services for those people who now expect online services while keeping a face to face and telephone service for those who do not want to use the internet 
• Saving £420,000 by renegotiating recycling contracts and increasing income from the paid business waste service
• Our Westhive platform allows communities to fundraise for local projects, making the money we donate go much further and support more projects 
• We have been leading the way by using AI in our future planning which has saved significant resources 

Our Council Plan and priorities 

We have an ambitious Council Plan that sets out our commitment to the residents, communities and businesses of West Oxfordshire. We consulted with residents on what should be in this plan and built it around your responses. 

The five priorities of the plan are: 

• Putting Residents First 
• Enabling a Good Quality of Life for All  
• Creating a Better Environment for People and Wildlife  
• Responding to the Climate and Ecological Emergency  
• Working Together for West Oxfordshire 

Our vision for the future is - “Shaping West Oxfordshire as a District which offers a fulfilling and meaningful quality of life for our residents with opportunities for all to flourish. A thriving and prosperous place for entrepreneurs and businesses, where local people and visitors can enjoy the beauty and heritage of our landscape, built, farmed and natural environment.” 

Your views on which services we should spend our money on 

As part of our response to the financial challenges facing all local government we have made a commitment to sensibly managing the council’s finances. We have talked through a small bit of this work with you and we will continue to work to be: 

• More efficient 
• Invest in the district where we can 
• Work in partnership to maximise our resources  
• Carefully manage how we spend our limited budget

If you would like to complete a paper copy of this survey, please download a copy below: