Devon County Council is set to make nearly £22 million of service delivery cuts next year despite its 2025-26 service delivery budget increasing by just under 6% to £781 million.
Nearly £60 million of the total will be used to cover inflation, wage and other cost increases on last year, leaving County Hall delivering fewer services at greater cost in 2025-26 than it is in 2024-25.
The county council claimed that there would be “more money to provide care for Devon’s vulnerable adults and children” in 2025-26 without making clear that adult and children’s services delivery would actually be reduced.
It published a similar press release in December, accompanied by an image of a child apparently cheering it on.
Devon County Council 2025-26 budget press release image. Source: Devon County Council.
The county council approved its 2025-26 service delivery budget at a cabinet meeting last week.
Liberal Democrat county councillor Caroline Leaver said: “What we are looking at is savings being found across every service, budget figures which say there are more actual pounds going in but what we are looking at in reality is a real-terms cut”.
She asked Conservative county council leader James McInnes if he could explain “where these cuts are going to fall and where the impacts are going to be on people in Devon”.
He did not reply. County finance director Angie Sinclair instead responded, but did not answer the question.
Angie Sinclair then claimed that reports due before three scrutiny committees being held later this month would contain more detail on the “make-up” of the £21.7 million service delivery cuts.
However this time last year the county council cabinet also agreed service delivery cuts for the current financial year, amounting to £50 million, without explaining where they would fall.
It then presented the 2024-25 budget at a series of scrutiny meetings without answering questions from councillors about the cuts, before rubber-stamping the essentially unchanged budget at a full council meeting in February.
If this year’s budget-setting process follows the same playbook as last year, the county council will sign off the budget approved by last week’s cabinet at its meeting next month without making significant changes, with all £22 million service delivery cuts intact.
