Liverpool City Council 2026/27 Budget: £100m Boost for Services
Liverpool City Council has unveiled plans to invest an additional £100 million into frontline services over the next financial year, as part of its proposed 2026/27 budget.
Around £90 million of the extra funding will be directed towards demand-led services, including adult social care, Children’s Services and homelessness support, ensuring the city’s most vulnerable residents continue to receive vital help.
Council Leader Cllr Liam Robinson said:
“We now have a Government that is willing to listen to listen to councils and take account of the needs of big cities such as Liverpool when allocating funding.
“As a result of this, we have received the best settlement for 15 years and, although it won’t replace the funding we lost during the austerity years, it enables us to make choices about where to make investments.”
Major investment in social care, homelessness and community services
Liverpool City Council have confirmed £34 million will be spent on homelessness services, while 8,000 people currently receive Adult Social Care, and 1,300 young people are looked after by the local authority.
An additional £1 million will go towards youth services, combining a new £500,000 allocation with a further £500,000 already committed, enabling more youth workers to operate directly within communities.
Cllr Robinson added:
“We are choosing to rebuild services in our communities, which will mean cleaner streets, better parks and green spaces, and improved leisure and youth facilities.
“Because we have received a three year settlement, we are able to plan for the future with certainty, enable us to commit to investments that will make a visible and positive difference in communities over the coming years.”
Cleaner streets, greener parks and 100 new local jobs
More than £7.5 million has been earmarked for parks, green spaces and street scene services such as rubbish removal, street cleansing and grass verge maintenance.
The plans include over 100 new jobs and apprenticeships ring-fenced for young people, including 26 new barrow walkers and street washers to tackle city centre grotspots.
Every play park in the city will see its equipment replaced, and parks will be brought up to Green Flag standard.
This builds on £2.5 million committed last year, which included the creation of School Streets schemes aimed at improving safety, air quality and encouraging active travel.
A new Community Renewal Fund worth almost £4 million over two years will also allow ward councillors to work with local groups to tackle deprivation and priority issues in their areas.
Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Transformation, Councillor Ruth Bennett, said:
“Making sure that we deliver better quality, value-for-money services is at the heart of every single budget decision that we make. We never forget it is public money that we are spending.
“We are making progress in modernising our back office processes to improve efficiency, as well as bringing in more of the income we are owed such as rent, Council Tax and Business Rates and reducing spend on posting letters by £900k.
“We are also delivering a big programme of transformation across those services which are demand-led such as children’s and adult services and homelessness, to make sure that they are sustainable in the longer term.“
The council also plans to invest £231 million in capital infrastructure projects in 2026/27, covering roads, safer and greener streets, schools, social care and health facilities, leisure centres and energy-efficient buildings.
Following the Government’s Fair Funding review, the city is set to receive an additional £186 million by 2029, including £69 million in 2026/27.
Council Tax is proposed to rise by 4.99 per cent, in line with most other local authorities in England.
The final budget will be decided at a full council meeting on Wednesday, 4 March.
