Council Tax 2027-2028: Public consultation

Under this option: extra savings needed every year = £3.5m

Your Council Tax for Kent Fire and Rescue Service would stay the same in 2027/28. This means we would get no extra Council Tax income next year. But costs continue to rise, meaning we would need to make significant savings.

To balance next year's budget, we would need to take £3.5m from our reserves. Reserves are money we have set aside for specific future costs, such as replacing fire engines.
We can only use reserves once. From the following year onwards, we would need to find £3.5m of permanent savings every year. 

What this could mean:

• Less money to replace fire engines, other emergency vehicles and maintain fire stations. For context, fire engines cost around £400k each and we have 75 front line fire engines plus additional reserves. We have to put money aside each year toward paying for these.
• Slower investment in equipment for fast-growing risks. This includes wildfire vehicles, drones, lightweight protective clothing and rescue equipment. For context, the contract for our protective clothing for our firefighters is over £1m per year.
• Less training for evolving risks, such as wildfires, water rescues, and fires involving lithium-ion batteries.
• Cutting a significant number of jobs. This could reduce safety visits to people’s homes (including fitting smoke alarms), fire safety inspections of buildings, public safety campaigns, and the teams that support our firefighters and maintain our equipment.
• Reducing the number of firefighter posts we have. A full-time firefighter costs £62k per year (salary £40k + additional costs such as pension and tax).

We would only make these decisions after a full assessment of the risk and the impact on the public. But as 80% of our budget is spent on pay, it is clear we could not make the savings we need without having to look at cutting jobs.

Under this option: Far smaller savings required – around £1m per year

The Government sets a limit on how much we can raise Council Tax without holding a local vote, called a referendum. For next year, we expect the limit to be £5 a year for a Band D home. That is an increase of just under 10p a week. Band D is the standard band used to compare Council Tax, and your own bill depends on your property's band.

What this would mean:

• We would still need to make savings, but significantly less than the £3.5m required under a Council Tax freeze.
• We could still carry out necessary replacement of fire engines, emergency vehicles and maintain or improve fire stations.
• Far fewer jobs would need to be cut.

It would help protect:

• The number of firefighters and fire engines available.
• Training for wildfires, fires in the home, and water rescues.
• Safety visits to people’s homes (including fitting smoke alarms) and fire safety inspections of buildings.
• Planned investment in protective clothing and equipment, such as wildfire vehicles, drones, rescue tools and bulk water carriers.

We would still need to find some savings and make the most of every pound.
 

Having read about the challenges we face, what Council Tax increase would you be prepared to pay in 2027/28?

To help you decide:

• Every 1% increase adds just under 2p a week to a Band D bill.
• Every 1% raises about £690,000 a year for the service.
• A £5 increase per year is roughly 5%.
• For every 1% below 5%, we would need to find £690,000 more in savings each year.

An increase above £5 would mean holding a referendum. This would likely cost at least £1.5m to run, with no guarantee that voters would agree to it. So part of any additional money raised would have to be used to pay for the referendum.