Kent County Council’s new finance system may be necessary. But with the bill now heading past £30m, the question is brutally simple: how is this saving the people of Kent money?
Reform UK came into power at Kent County Council promising savings, value for money and a fresh pair of eyes on County Hall spending. Fair enough. But one of the biggest tests of that promise is now sitting in the council’s own back office: the Oracle Cloud programme, the system KCC uses to pay bills, run purchasing and manage core finance processes. It isn’t glamorous. It isn’t ribbon-cutting politics. But it’s where public money moves — and where public accountability ought to start.
KCC says the old Oracle system was more than 20 years old, out of support, inefficient and risky. That may well be true. No sensible person wants a county council running its finances on digital Sellotape and a prayer. But the question isn’t simply whether the old system needed replacing. The question is whether the replacement has been properly controlled, properly explained and properly justified to Kent taxpayers.
The financial trail is stark. In response to a Freedom of Information request, KCC said the original approved budget was £13m, approved on 24 February 2022 for the Extended Discovery phase. KCC also made clear that, at that stage, no total project cost was included in the project request. By November 2024, the revised budget had risen to £25.4m. By November 2025, the total funding envelope was £29.8m. Spending to date is £29.2m.
That caveat about the £13m matters. It wasn’t, on KCC’s own wording, a full original project budget. But that is also part of the problem. The first approved figure in the public FOI trail was £13m. The approved envelope is now £29.8m — £16.8m higher, a rise of 129.2%. Spending so far is £29.2m — £16.2m higher, a rise of 124.6%. And the current forecast final cost, put by KCC to the Kent Current at £30.4m, is £17.4m above that first approved figure — a rise of 133.8%. That is not small change. That is a whole new political weather system.
KCC refused to provide the current forecast final outturn under FOI. It said the information was intended for future publication, was under review with strategic partners, and could prejudice commercial discussions. It also said it was in the public interest not to disclose until the information was properly validated. Then, when approached separately for comment, the council gave the figure: £30.4m. So the public were told the number couldn’t be released under FOI, only to see a number emerge anyway. County Hall calls this information management. We might call it cloud cover.
The council’s own 2026/27 Budget Risks Register makes the position more uncomfortable. Under “Oracle Cloud Programme – Cost and Timescale Overruns”, it says the implementation phase is experiencing cost pressures and potential timescale overruns. It says current forecasts indicate an overspend of £4.9m, with the total estimated overspend at risk of increasing if there is further slippage. Around £2.5m is expected in 2026/27.
Then comes the line that should make every councillor sit up. The same risk register says “additional costs not reported to the Oracle Cloud Programme Board” are expected to be funded from the IT reserve and therefore have not been included in the medium-term financial plan for 2026/27. Pause there. Additional costs. Not reported to the Programme Board. Funded from reserves. Not included in the MTFP. If those words don’t trigger scrutiny, what exactly is scrutiny for?
The rollout has also had operational consequences. KCC’s own performance report says the move to the new Oracle Cloud system in August caused delays and reporting issues in Accounts Payable. One invoice-processing measure fell below floor standard, with performance dropping to 36% in September and 51% in October against a 98% target. This is the system that helps pay suppliers. When that slows down, it isn’t an abstract IT problem. It’s businesses, providers and public services waiting for the machine to catch up.
To be clear, this isn’t proof of a full-blown IT disaster. KCC told another FOI request that duplicate payments or overpayments since go-live totalled £19,348.72 and that £0 remained unrecovered. It also said no extra temporary staff or consultants had been hired specifically to process manual payments or fix data errors caused by the migration. That is useful context, and it should be reported fairly.
But the same FOI response says no lessons-learned exercise has been conducted into data migration issues or lost historical financial records, and that the issue had not been raised in Project Reviews following Phase 1. That may mean there were no such problems to learn from. Or it may mean the council has not yet done the kind of public-facing post-mortem a programme of this size deserves. Either way, with phase two still in view, “no lessons learned” is not exactly the phrase taxpayers want to hear.
This is where Reform UK’s promise comes back into the room. KCC’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (DOLGE) was established by the Leader in May 2025. Its own strategy says it exists to identify efficiencies and savings, provide value for money to Kent residents, and keep a “relentless focus” on controlling costs. KCC’s Reforming Kent statement talks about reviewing contracts, checking whether they deliver value for money, and stripping out excessive cost and time through technology, AI and automation.
Good. Then Oracle Cloud is exactly the sort of programme that needs the DOLGE treatment. It is large. It is expensive. It is inherited, yes, but it is not irrelevant. Reform now runs the council. The approved funding envelope increased again in November 2025, after Reform took control. The programme is still live. The risks are live. The costs are live. So is the accountability.
The question is not whether Reform UK created this programme. It didn’t. The question is whether Reform UK, now in power, is willing to show Kent residents the hard evidence that this £30m-plus system will save money. Where is the public benefits tracker? Where are the cashable savings? Where is the before-and-after comparison? Where is the explanation showing how much Kent taxpayers will save, by year, because of Oracle Cloud? If the answer is better control, show the control. If the answer is lower running costs, show the costs. If the answer is future resilience, show the numbers.
Because right now, the public can see the bill much more clearly than the saving. They can see £13m for the first approved phase, £25.4m by November 2024, £29.8m by November 2025, £29.2m spent to date, and a current forecast of £30.4m. They can see a £4.9m overspend risk. They can see invoice-processing problems after go-live. They can see costs funded from reserves and flexible capital receipts. What they cannot yet see, in one clear public document, is how this saves the people of Kent money.
That is the test. Not a slogan. Not a committee buzzword. Not another promise that efficiencies are being identified somewhere in the mist. Reform UK promised Kent savings. KCC’s Oracle Cloud bill has risen sharply and is heading past £30m. So County Hall needs to answer the simplest question in local government: where is the saving, and when do Kent residents get to see it what Reform UK promised?
The Shepway Vox Team
Discernibly Different Dissent
