Financial forecasts suggests Doncaster Council deficit to reach £10.7m in 2027/28
Doncaster Council could see budget deficits of at least £8.2million each year until the end of the decade.
New documents published by the City of Doncaster Council has projected deficits of a combined £28million over the coming years.
According to the council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), Doncaster Council has forecast significant budget deficits through to the end of the decade.
The report, which will be presented to Mayor Ros Jones’ cabinet on November 4, 2026, states: “The MTFS forecasts a budget gap of £10.7m in 2027/28, reducing to £8.2m in 2028/29 and increasing to £9.8m in 2029/30.”
It added that the figures ‘remain subject to change’ and would like change as further information becomes available.
The new figures come against a challenging backdrop for local authority finances across the country, but Doncaster Council’s finances in the long-term have become a larger talking point since Reform UK forced through a lesser two per cent increase in council tax for 2026/27.
Labour’s minority administration, led by the directly elected Mayor Jones, intended to implement a 4.99 per cent increase, before Reform UK’s budget amendment reduced the increase.
Faye Tyas, service director for finance and technology and chief financial officer at the council, said in February that the Reform UK amendment was a balanced budget, but the savings required to do so were particularly challenging to achieve.
The new MTFS said: “Work is underway across all directorates to review existing budget pressures, identify mitigations and develop savings proposals.
“It is imperative that further savings, mitigations and service transformation opportunities are identified to enable the Council to set a balanced and sustainable budget for 2027/28 and future years.”
It follows further comments from Ms Tyas on September 17, 2026, in which she told an Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting that the council was now ‘expecting’ to make cuts to services in the future.
“I think we are expecting that we’ll need to look at savings,” Ms Tyas said when asked if the council would need to consider reducing services should the ambitious savings requirements in 2026/27 not be achieved.
The MTFS suggests contingency funding, which is money that has been set aside in case of council expenditure exceeding income, is only £4.1m for 2027/28 and will reduce to £1.3m by 2029/30.