Kent Council Tax to Exceed £1 Billion Under Reform UK Leadership

Kent County Council is set to raise council tax by the maximum allowed 5% next year, making it the latest Reform UK-controlled authority to backtrack on promises of cost-cutting. A senior Reform UK councillor in Kent admits that the county’s services are “down to the bare bones” and that the council “just want[s] more money”. This climbdown comes despite earlier pledges to slash spending, and it means the council’s tax intake will surge to an unprecedented level.

Council Tax Income Soaring In Kent

Kent residents have already seen hefty council tax increases in recent years. In the 2024/25 financial year, Kent County Council (KCC) collected £935.67 million in council tax across its 12 districts. That figure jumped to roughly £994.2 million in 2025/26 – a result of a just-under-5% rate rise approved to balance the budget. Now, with KCC officials signaling another 5% hike for 2026/27, the county’s council tax receipts are expected to exceed £1 billion for the first time. This would mark a significant milestone, underscoring how quickly local tax burdens have grown under the new administration.

• 2024/25: £935.67 million total KCC council tax precept

• 2025/26: £994.20 million (approx.) total council tax precept

• 2026/27: Over £1 billion (projected, with a 5% rate increase)

County Hall leaders argue that the tax increase is unavoidable. “We’ve got more demand than ever before and it’s growing,” said Diane Morton (pictured), KCC’s Reform UK cabinet member for adult social care, who believes the council will opt for the full 5% rise. The 5% cap is the maximum allowed without a referendum, combining a general rate increase and a special levy for adult social care. If enacted, it would add around £80 to the annual bill of a Band D household in Kent, on top of previous rises.

Reform UK’s Cost Cutting Drive Falters

The need for a tax hike is a striking reversal for Reform UK (the rebranded Brexit party led by Nigel Farage) in Kent. After taking control of Kent County Council in May 2025, Reform UK councillors launched what they called an Elon Musk-inspired “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge) unit to root out wasteful spending. Council leader Linden Kemkaran touted an ambitious plan (dubbed “Dolge” at the local level) and claimed it had identified £40 million in potential savings. These measures were supposed to deliver a leaner government and fulfill campaign promises to cut costs instead of raising taxes.

However, just months later, those plans appear insufficient to fix Kent’s budget shortfall. The much-hyped efficiency drive has struggled, with reports that the Reform team hit obstacles accessing council data needed for identifying savings. In the meantime, demand for services – especially in adult and children’s social care – continues to skyrocket, consuming about 50% of KCC’s £2.5 billion annual budget.

Facing these fiscal realities, Reform UK officials now concede they likely have no choice but to ask residents to pay more. Morton’s admission that a 5% council tax rise is on the table has been seized on by opponents as proof that Reform UK’s cost-cutting rhetoric was unrealistic. Polly Billington, Labour MP for East Thanet, noted that Kent was meant to be “the biggest advert” for what a Farage-led government would do, and yet it’s headed for a tax increase. Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, called the situation a “spectacular failure” for which Reform’s policy chief Zia Yusuf should “personally apologise”.

Financial Pressures and Political Reactions

The immediate driver of the tax hike is a looming budget gap. Kent County Council has already warned of a deficit of around £50 million for the next financial year if no action is taken. By law, the council must set a balanced budget, so plugging this gap is essential to avoid cuts to vital services. Even after some spending reductions, council papers indicate KCC still faces an overspend of about £27.9 million beyond its £1.53 billion budget in the coming year. Reform UK’s local leadership has floated ideas like cutting back on school transport and other programs to save money, but independent analysts doubt such moves can solve what one think-tank called “the same brutal arithmetic” that all councils face.

Opposition leaders in Kent are pouncing on the irony of Reform UK raising taxes. “Huge promises about savings, then failing to find any because they don’t know what they’re talking about – that’s what they’re doing in local government and it’s what they’d do to Britain,” Billington said of the Reform administration’s struggles. Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper quipped that “cribbing the notes of dodgy American tech billionaires is no way to run a council”, a reference to the Musk-inspired efficiency scheme. Both argue that Reform UK’s predicament in Kent foretells the difficulty Nigel Farage would have delivering on national promises to slash taxes and spending.

For its part, Reform UK’s Kent leadership defends its record so far. A council spokesperson highlighted “fantastic work” in the first five months of control, claiming they reduced the authority’s debt by £66 million and halted further borrowing. Much of these savings, they say, came from the new efficiency team’s efforts – including scrapping a planned net-zero energy project (saving £32 million over four years) and cancelling a costly office move. They have also imposed a “no more borrowing” rule aiming to trim another £33 million of debt by March 2026. Reform councillors argue that these steps are “cleaning up the mess” left by previous Conservative administrations and that every avenue to cut costs is being pursued before burdening taxpayers.

Outlook For Kent Residents

Despite those cost-cutting measures, Kent residents are likely to see their council tax bills rise yet again in 2026. The anticipated 5% hike would keep KCC just under the referendum threshold and is roughly in line with what other councils are considering amid high inflation and surging social care costs. For the average household in Kent (Band D), the county council portion of the annual bill in 2025/26 is about £1,691– already nearly £80 higher than the year before, after a 4.99% increase. Another 5% on top of that would mean roughly £85 extra per year for a Band D home, pushing the KCC share of such a bill above £1,775.

The political stakes are high for Reform UK. Kent was meant to showcase the party’s ability to govern efficiently without raising taxes. Instead, the looming tax rise over £1 billion in revenue has become, in the words of one critic, “a spectacular failure” of their flagship pledge. With half of Kent’s budget tied up in legally required services like adult social care and special education, it appears even Farage’s insurgents can’t escape fiscal reality: to keep services running, taxes must go up or services must be cut. Local residents and opposition councillors will be watching closely as budget proposals are finalized in the coming months. The outcome in Kent could serve as a cautionary tale for Reform UK’s national ambitions, illustrating the hard choices any government faces between funding vital services and honoring tax-cut promises

The Shepway Vox Team

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