Council Tax letter from Leader 2025
Dear Barnet Resident
I know that many residents are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, so helping people through this difficult time is a priority for us.
As a council, we are facing an unprecedented crisis in financing our services, driven by a perfect storm of a decade of funding cuts from central government, high interest rates making services more expensive to deliver, and ever-increasing demand for complex and costly services we have a legal duty to provide, such as adults’ and children’s social care and temporary accommodation.
We have identified efficiency savings of over £23m to our budget for 2025/26 but we still face a shortfall of £56m, which is why we requested exceptional financial support for £55.7m from government. The request for financial support is not a decision we have taken lightly. The funding will give us the space to work through some of the unprecedented pressures the council is facing and to implement the changes we want to make to put us on a firmer financial footing.
This will mean some difficult decisions in the months ahead and we will be regularly engaging with residents to understand what is most important to you, so we can reshape services to focus on those things and deliver them even more cost-effectively.
We have a strong base on which to build. Guided by our vision – Caring for People, our Places and the Planet – we have made significant strides in transforming services and focusing on the things that matter most to you. This includes:
- Driving forward with a £97m highways improvement programme to fix our roads and pavements to keep the cost of maintaining them down
- A programme to build 1,000 new council homes to reduce the extremely high costs of providing temporary accommodation for homeless families
- Bringing more children’s care facilities in-house so we do not have to pay huge profits to private companies
- Promoting independence in old age to help people stay healthy in their own homes, while keeping down the cost of social care
- Decarbonising the council fleet and buildings, planting 1,000 trees a year and delivering thousands of new electric vehicle charge points to improve our air quality and health – whilst reducing energy costs and supporting our commitment to being a net zero borough by 2042.
Cost of living support
With the pound in your pocket worth far less than it was three years ago, we are helping residents deal with the burden of rising bills.
We continue to maintain a Council Tax lower than any of our neighbouring boroughs – to help families keep their household bills down and are one of only a few London boroughs who have kept the increase below the legal maximum as we pledged to do.
Our Money Worries? campaign has raised awareness of our financial benefits calculator, which helps you to identify any state benefits for which you are eligible but may not be claiming. To date, we have helped hundreds of households find more than £12m in unclaimed benefits. Try our Benefits Calculator
Barnet residents aged 60 or older are eligible for the Freedom Pass, which is funded by all London boroughs and reduces the cost of travel. For example, with the Freedom Pass you can travel free on the TfL network after 9am on weekdays and at any time on weekends and bank holidays. About Freedom Pass: Older persons Freedom Pass
Working with you
At the heart of our work is our commitment to being a ‘listening council’, one that fosters participation, builds trust and works collaboratively with residents, businesses and partners. Through this approach, we ensure that every step we take creates real and lasting change.
We want you to stay involved in this journey. While we face significant challenges, I am confident that, together, we can overcome them and create a brighter future for all who live, work or study in Barnet.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Barry Rawlings, Leader of Barnet Council