2025/26 Budget Plans
Dartford has the lowest District Council tax in Kent.
Keeping your bills low isn’t an accident – it’s something we are proud of and represents a lot of hard work and common-sense decision making.
We aim to find the right balance between keeping up our excellent level of services and making sure we keep charges down. We provide a wide range of services, activities and events for the community and we receive many compliments about them, but we know that many households are facing tight budgets.
A lot of the things that impact us stem from decisions taken by Central Government. You’ve probably seen in the press that we will be required to meet new housebuilding targets and that the Government has delayed a decision on the Lower Thames Crossing – something that’s desperately required to ease congestion in our town. We are also dependent on the Government for a lot of funding. In previous years we have been allowed to keep some of the benefit from the growth that’s happened here but there are some subtle ( and not so subtle!) hints that going forward the new Government wants to redistribute resources to other areas.
The new Government promises a funding settlement to replace the one that expires this year and given what the Chancellor has said since taking office we think it is only sensible to plan for less money in future years.
We can’t be sure but if history is anything to go by most local Councils in the country will put up their Council Tax by the maximum they are allowed – probably by 3%.
Once again, we intend to buck that trend and believe that, for the time being, we can continue to deliver all the services you tell us you support without raising tax by the maximum. We believe that our proposal of a 2% increase could again be lower than many, many other Councils.
This is our main budget proposal, alongside a plan to continue running services at existing levels or better as well as investing in those areas under pressure.
However, I want to be open about challenges ahead and if Central Government were to bring about a sudden reduction in funding we will need to make decisions to prioritise services, one against another, as well as look at our income, expenses and financial position so that you continue to receive what is most important to you. Whatever happens, we’ll be open with you about it and continue to start from a position that has been my personal ‘mantra’ from day one … “it’s far harder for a household to generate money than it is for a council to spend it. We must always try to keep bills as low as possible.”
Provide us with your comments or write to us by February 9, 2025 at:
Budget 2025, DBC Financial Services,
Civic Centre,
Home Gardens,
Dartford Kent
Jeremy Kite
Leader of the Council