Finance officials warn of ‘very tough choices’ after projecting £10m 2027/28 Doncaster Council deficit

Top finance officials at the City of Doncaster Council have said elected councillors are going to have to make ‘very tough choices’ that ‘people don’t want to do’, amid concerning financial forecasts to the end of the decade.

Councillors on the overview and scrutiny management committee were discussing the recent ‘Medium-Term Financial Strategy’ (MTFS), in which officials projected a budget deficits of £10.7million, £8.2m and £9.8m from 2027/28 onwards.

The eye-opening forecasts are unlikely to materialise, as they represent projections if nothing was changed financially for the council for the next three years. However, top finance officials said there would be impacts on council services.

Debbie Hogg, executive director of corporate resources, told councillors: “There are going to be some very tough choices for you.

“We can’t scrape the bottom of the barrel anymore…It’s not going to be nice, the options that do come forward, as they are going to be things people don’t want to do.”

However, both Ms Hogg and Faye Tyas, the council’s statutory finance officer, said they were not going to ‘ring the bell’ of ‘bankruptcy’ any time soon, when quizzed by Reform UK’s Councillor Maria Hollingworth.

Councils legally cannot go bankrupt, but authorities that find themselves unable to pay the bills issue a ‘Section 114’ notice which can lead to Government intervention, with famous recent examples including Birmingham City Council.

Ms Hogg told the meeting cuts were likely, explaining: “We’ve got that tension between the resources the council has and the cost of service delivery.”

She also explained that the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) taking over the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport would have limited affect on Doncaster Council’s financial outlook.

“Where it impacts on us is it reduces risk and that’s welcome, but where we all need to look, it won’t change any of this,” Ms Hogg said.

The reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport was not being done using the council’s own core budgets, which the MTFS figures apply to.

Ms Hogg added: “It was funded from gainshare monies. It was a separate source of funding. Where it will improve is that we haven’t got this risk hanging over us.

“That will help as we don’t have that worry in terms of the airport operations, but that will not address the shortfall as it was funded elsewhere.”

Labour’s Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, has long claimed that the local authority has been ‘financially well-managed’ under her leadership, but challenges have arisen after she was tasked with delivering a budget approved by Reform UK.

The Reform group, who hold a majority in the council chamber, but act as the council opposition due to the council’s unusual directly elected mayor system, implemented a council tax rise of two-per-cent in February 2026.

It was a small rise than the maximum 4.99 per cent rise Mayor Jones wanted, with Reform stating they were saving residents money during the cost of living crisis.

However, despite being verified as balanced by finance officials, Reform UK’s ambitious new savings requirements, which would help fund the lower tax rise, would be difficult to achieve.