Council Tax Support Scheme consultation 2025

Consultation closes: Wednesday, 7 January 2026
Consultation opened: Wednesday, 26 November 2025

We provide a variety of statutory services these includes education services, children’s safeguarding and social care, adult social care, general and recycled waste collection, planning and housing services, public protection, road maintenance, and library services. We also provide discretionary services such as planning enforcement, garden waste collection, theatres, and some leisure services.

Over two-thirds of our funding (mainly from your Council Tax) is used to fund services for the vulnerable – adult social care and children’s services. The demand and cost of providing these services is increasing beyond our funding.

This is a national problem and like many councils, we have reduced staffing, started charging for some services, cut some services and changed how some are delivered to reduce our costs in order to continue to provide vital social care and support for children.

Since Central Bedfordshire Council was created in 2009, spending has been reduced by over £192 million by working more efficiently, including automating processes to reduce costs and looking for alternative ways of generating income. This will continue, but every year it gets harder to make further efficiencies and we have to start looking at reducing discretionary services.

Last year, our budget included plans to reduce costs by £32 million. We stopped all but essential recruitment, stopped all non-essential spending and reduced the number of senior managers and staff we employ. Find out more about how we've been trying to reduce costs.

We understand that any reduction in support can be concerning, especially for those facing financial hardship. However, due to significant financial pressures, it has become necessary to review and adjust the Local Council Tax Support scheme.

How we support residents financially

Main benefits like Universal Credit, pensions, Child Benefit and disability payments are provided by the government through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

In addition, local councils help with housing support, discretionary crisis help, social care funding and reductions in Council Tax for people on low incomes.

We currently provide a range of direct and indirect support for low-income households. Some of this is funded from our core budget, and some is funded by specific, time-bound government funding such as the Household Support Fund.

We currently use the Household Support Fund to provide:

• supermarket vouchers during school holidays to families whose children would be eligible for free school meals
• funding to food banks and other similar community support organisations
• a crisis fund, to support households experiencing food or fuel poverty

We also use government funding to run a Holiday Activities and Food programme, which offers free activities and meals to children eligible for free school meals during the Easter, summer and Christmas school holidays.

In addition, we use some of our core funding to fund voluntary organisations such as Citizens Advice, which provides free and independent guidance on money, housing, and benefits.

The government has announced that the Household Support Fund will be replaced in 2026 by a new Crisis and Resilience Fund. Levels of funding for local authorities and criteria have not yet been confirmed.