Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Finance and Resources

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources (Section 151 Officer) which would also be considered by Council at its meeting on 24th February 2026, that calculated the Council Tax level for 2026/27 and made appropriate recommendations to Council, consistent with the Budget Report 2026/27.

The report recommended a 3.9% increase in the City’s Council Tax. Some figures and information, shaded grey in the report, were necessarily provisional due to precepts not having been confirmed at the time of publication.

The report incorporated the impact of the Council's gross expenditure and the level of income it would receive through Business Rates, grants, and fees and charges. This resulted in a Council Tax requirement, as the amount that its expenditure exceeded all other sources of income.

The report included a calculation of the Band D Council Tax that would be needed to generate this Council Tax requirement, based on the City's approved Council Tax base. The 2026/27 Band D Council Tax that was calculated through this process had increased by £82.98 from the 2025/26 level.

Each year the Government determined the maximum Council Tax increases that local authorities could set without triggering a referendum. For 2026/27, Coventry City Council’s Council Tax must be below 5%, as set out in the Secretary of State’s principles for 2026/27, comprising a 2% precept for expenditure on adult social care and a maximum of 3% for other expenditure. The recommendations within the Budget Report 2026/27 were based on a proposed increase in Council Tax of 3.9%, incorporating a core Council Tax rise of 2.9% and a 1% Adult Social Care Precept.

At the time of writing this report the precept from the Police and Crime Commissioner and the precept from the Fire and Rescue Authority had not been confirmed. The provisional figures provided in this report were based on indicative figures. The figures detailed in the recommendations below were subsequently confirmed as the final figures, at the meeting.

Members noted that the recommendations followed the structure of resolutions drawn up by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, to ensure that legal requirements were fully adhered to in setting the tax. As a consequence the wording of the proposed resolutions was necessarily complex.

RESOLVED that Cabinet recommend to Council the approval of recommendations (1) to (5) below:

(1)  To note the following Council Tax base amounts for the year 2026/27, as approved by Cabinet on 6 January 2026, in accordance with Regulations made under Section 31B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 ("the Act"):

a) 91,413.3 being the amount calculated by the Council as its Council Tax base for the year for the whole Council area;

b)  Allesley  498.7

  Finham  1,587.2

Keresley  744.4

being the amounts calculated by the Council as its Council Tax base for the year for dwellings in those parts of its area to which one or more special items relate.

(2)  That the following amounts be now calculated by the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67