Budget for 2025/26 includes investments in key services at Oxfordshire County Council

New funding of more than £50m has been agreed for highway maintenance with more money also agreed for active travel measures to promote walking and cycling and extra investment to improve responsiveness to flooding.

The annual budget setting meeting of Oxfordshire County Council (11 February) also agreed new funding in 2025/26 for special educational needs (SEND), early years support and holding the price of joint ticketing at park and rides.

In the autumn, Oxfordshire County Council had said that it would face a £25 million funding shortfall in 2025/26 before taking account of any new funding.

The impact of new money allocated to local government in December combined with local changes and a 4.99 per cent council tax increase in 2025/26 meant that this shortfall could be addressed, with additional money to allocate to services on a one – off basis.

A total of two per cent of the council tax increase is ringfenced for adult social care under rules set down by central government.

Councillor Dan Levy, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “We are pleased to be able to spend more on important services that people value ranging from adult social care for children and adults to highway maintenance.

“There is lots of good news for people all over the county and from all backgrounds in the budget we have set. This is all in the context of us carefully and responsibly managing the council’s finances and making efficiency savings where and when we can.

“While it is good news that we can spend more on priorities in 2025 the pressures on local government continue to increase and things look uncertain beyond 2025/26. All councils want more certainty looking forward.”

What has been agreed?

£1m of funding for the expansion of early years support (under 5s) so that all children can get the best possible start in life.
The council proposes has allocated £1.141m of extra funding in 2025/26 relating to special educational needs (SEND) and education, health and care plans (EHCP). A total of £641,000 of this would be additional money to complete EHCPs more quickly and £500,000 to facilitate the provision of expertise from special schools focused on children with EHCPs who are in mainstream schools. An EHCP is put in to support a young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the UK if their educational setting doesn’t have the resources and expertise to support them.
Meanwhile there is £2m of new money partly funded by new government grant funding to support families to overcome challenges at the earliest opportunity, prevent escalation and effectively intervene with problems.
£400,000 additional funding to cover the costs of the increase in number of children with SEND requiring home to school transport.
£3.6m for flooding measures including £2.1m for proactive work with communities who have suffered flooding and £1.5m additional funding for highway drainage in 2025/26, with the council moving to an annual highway drainage gully emptying and jetting cycle.
£1m funding for revenue or capital spend to leverage investment in rail, including supporting active travel access, improvement programmes and the development of strategic cases and masterplans to prove the environmental, economic and community case for rail.
£400,000 to support holding the price of a joint ticket (parking and bus fare) at Park & Ride car parks unchanged from 2024/25.

The council’s Liberal Democrat/Green administration accepted amendments by the Labour group at the council during the debate and details of these changes can be found here

Additions include investment in breakfast clubs at schools, the development of a business case for greenways cross-country cycle routes, finance to transform libraries into community hubs, further money for family help and SEND and narrowing the gap for disadvantaged children based on the work of the Education Commission in Oxfordshire earlier in the 2020s.

Spending on capital projects

Additions to council’s capital budget include:

£38.6m for a two-year highways maintenance programme, which will extend surface dressing, prevent potholes from occurring and improve drainage across the highways network in Oxfordshire. A further £16.2m will be used to repair and maintain bridges and £4m for improvements in road safety.
£11.1m towards the completion of Watlington relief road to alleviate congestion, noise and air pollution in the town centre.
£1.8m for active travel measures to encourage walking and cycling including £500,000 for active travel in rural areas.
£300,000 funding towards working with other organisations collaboratively on planning regeneration in Banbury Town Centre.

A public consultation on the substance of the 2025/26 budget proposals ran throughout December and ended on 2 January 2025.

This followed extensive engagement with residents over the summer on their priorities, including on the budget. This was through the council’s annual residents’ survey and participatory engagement opportunities using an online budget simulator, focus groups and sounding boards for children and young people. This feedback has been used to inform the development of proposals and the budget and business planning process throughout the year.

Other key information about the county council budget for 2025/26 and the vote:

The net budget for 2025/26 will be: £646m.
Council tax will rise by 4.99 per cent, of which two per cent is earmarked for adult social care.

The political groups at the county council

There are 63 county councillors.
The Liberal Democrat Green Alliance group is made up of 23 county councillors (20 Liberal Democrat and three Green).
The Conservative group is made up of 19 county councillors, plus one independent councillor aligned with them in the Conservative Independent Alliance.
The Labour & Co-operative Party group is made up of 14 county councillors.
The Independent Voice of Oxfordshire is made up of 3 county councillors.
There are three independent councillors.