Kent County Council and Medway Council face a combined budget gap of more than £60 million next year, despite making significant cuts, new analysis has shown.
KCC alone is facing a budget gap of £54.4 million in 2027/2028, despite budgeting for almost £90 million in savings this year.
Reform UK have governed KCC since May 2025. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Medway Council is expected to have an £8.4 million gap by the same point, despite identifying its own savings of almost £16 million.
The Labour-run administration has already secured an agreement for £10 million in Exceptional Financial Support from the government.
Across the UK, upper-tier authorities face a total budget shortfall of £3.8 billion by the end of 2027, despite making £3.2 billion of cuts this financial year, according to the analysis by the BBC’s Shared Data Unit.
KCC’s Reform UK administration passed its 2026/27 budget in February, which saw council tax increase by 4%.
Councils can legally increase council tax by up to 4.99%; for increases of 5% or more, councils must have a referendum.
Medway Council leader Vince Maple (Lab)
A KCC spokesperson said the need to make savings and increase income is due to spending demands rising at a “higher rate than increases in available funding from central government and local taxation”.
This, they say, means “further savings” will be needed on top of the cuts already made.
Total spending at KCC, however, has increased compared to last year, largely due to the council’s single largest cost: adult social care.
Opposition leader Antony Hook (Lib Dem) said: “Spending has to grow no matter who’s in power in County Hall, because one of the biggest expenditures is adult social care and we have an ageing population.”
Longer lifespans and increasing numbers of people living with numerous comorbid illnesses mean that “people’s care needs are more expensive”, he added.
Lib Dem opposition leader Cllr Antony Hook
KCC has also attempted to improve its financial position by selling assets, such as an art collection. It made £27 million from asset sales in 2025/26 alone.
The full list of properties sold and planned for sale is secret, but is known to include sites such as the former Sevenoaks Adult Education Centre.
But Cllr Hook said: “You can only sell something once.
“You’ve got to run an adult social care service and maintain the highways every year; that’s ongoing expenditure. If you fund that by selling assets – once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
A KCC spokesperson admitted that asset sales “are generally regarded as one-off solutions which would have to be replaced with sustainable alternatives in subsequent years”.
County hall in Maidstone, where KCC is based
Medway Council has a much smaller overall budget than KCC, but must still provide social care.
Notably though, both councils are set to be abolished in the coming years.
From April 1 2028, Kent will instead be covered by four unitary authorities.
This means that the successor authorities will almost certainly have to take on parts of the assets and liabilities of both KCC and the relevant district councils they replace.
When Northamptonshire County Council was split into two unitary councils in 2020, it initiated a four-year court battle over which council would have to pick up which assets and liabilities.