Doncaster Council dips into financial reserves to set balanced budget after £1.2million overspend in 2025/26
Doncaster Council has one of the lowest council tax rates in the country.
The City of Doncaster Council will once again dip into its reserves in order be at a balanced financial position, after the authority overspent its budgets by £1.2million in 2025/26, agenda papers have revealed.
Earmarked reserves are being used “as planned” to cover these extra costs amid a difficult financial climate for councils across the country.
Documents being presented to Mayor Ros Jones’ cabinet on June 17, 2026, revealed the biggest departmental overspend was found in Adult Social Care “mainly due to increased care provided through direct payments, supported living and homecare”.
Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care and Public Health take up the vast majority of council spending, an issue being seen across the country.
Underspends in other departments, such as Place, which deals with waste, licensing and more, helped bring the overall overspend down to the final figure.
The council had a total budget of just under £900m for 2025/26, when combining the capital and revenue budgets set in February 2025.
Despite the fact the council was projected to overspend since the start of the year, opposition councillors forced through a Reform UK amendment for the 2026/27 budget which meant council tax would only rise by two per cent for the new year.
That two per cent was made up entirely of the Adult Social Care precept, but general council tax was frozen.
Initial estimates after the first quarter of 2025/26 projected the authority would overspend by £6.6m. This was reduced to £4.2m by the end of quarter three, before reaching the final overspend position of £1.2m.
The final overspend against the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), a ring-fenced pot from central government used to cover costs associated with education, also came down compared to the quarter three projections.
Doncaster Council overspent the DSG by £13.3m, down from £18m after Q3. A national statutory override is keeping this overspend off of council books until 2028, when the costs will be absorbed by the Department for Education.
However, local authorities will need to pay for the DSG deficit they accrue to that point. Doncaster’s DSG deficit currently stands at £50.9m as of 31 March 2026.
Earlier this year, the Government announced it would pay 90 per cent of DSG deficits accrued by councils to the end of 2025/26 and said it would offer “proportionate” support for further deficits accrued before the override ends in 2028.