Kent's finances sharply worsen
Plus local government reorganisation reaches endgame, latest financial declarations of Kent MPs, news in brief, and more
Kent County Council’s finances dominate this week’s edition, with a steepening £46.5m overspend, adult social care far beyond budget, and key infrastructure repairs drifting without resolution. Further down, we have our MPs’ latest financial declarations and the final manoeuvring over new unitary maps, news in brief, and more.
Kent’s finances sharply worsen
Kent County Council is heading into the winter with a rapidly deteriorating financial position, an adult social care budget far beyond its limits, and major infrastructure repairs drifting with no clear path forward. A new monitoring report shows the authority is now forecasting a £46.5m overspend for 2025/26, a sharp escalation that puts significant pressure on the council’s reserves and raises difficult questions about what Kent can expect over the coming months.
The figures, covering the first half of the financial year, make clear where the strain lies. Adult social care alone is overspending by £50.9m, more than 7% above its budget, driven by rising provider costs, higher-than-projected demand and £20.9m of savings that will not materialise. Although other directorates are underspending, it is not enough to offset the gap. Kent’s overall position stands at a 3% overspend against its £1.53bn budget, almost double the forecast at the end of June.
Council leader Linden Kemkaran said the latest report showed “the incredible challenges” facing the authority, insisting the adult social care pressures began under the previous Conservative administration. “When we were elected in May, it became apparent how challenged the adult social care budget was,” she said, arguing the department had “overspent massively” before Reform took control. She warned that “necessary but difficult decisions” will now be required and urged the government to provide additional support in next month’s funding settlement.
The pressures are well documented. Provider inflation has risen faster than anticipated. The number of older people needing residential or community support continues to exceed projections. The cost of placements for looked-after children remains high. In response, KCC has imposed a ‘no non-essential spend’ policy, tightened recruitment, and increased scrutiny of budget managers. Even with those measures, £27.6m of planned savings across the council are unlikely to be delivered this year.
Alongside this, the wider schools budget deficit has now reached £133.4m. The Safety Valve agreement with the Department for Education is off track, and the council has said it no longer expects to reach in-year balance by 2028. When the statutory override for DSG deficits expires in 2026, any remaining shortfall will fall onto the council’s main reserves. That risk will shape the medium-term outlook for Kent.
The financial strain is beginning to show on the county’s infrastructure. On the A299 Thanet Way, urgent repairs identified in September have yet to move forward, leaving a ‘temporary’ 50mph limit in place for more than two months. Kent County Council has not set a timeline for remedial works and says it is still carrying out inspections.
In Folkestone, excellent reporting by The Folkestone Dispatch, another independent local newsletter doing vital work, has highlighted growing frustration at the lack of progress on the Road of Remembrance. The route has been closed since a cliff collapse in January 2024. Earlier this year, KCC said it had a viable technical solution that could be delivered within months if funding was found. That plan has since been removed from the council’s project page. As the Dispatch revealed, KCC now says only that an options appraisal is underway and cannot indicate when the road might reopen.
Local councillors interviewed by the Dispatch, including former Conservative figures, say the previous administration was prepared to fund the repairs outright if needed, while they believe the current leadership has been unwilling to commit the funds. More than £600,000 has already been spent on surveys and safety work. Early estimates suggest the full repair could cost up to £5m.
These delays, alongside similar slippage elsewhere in the capital programme, underscore the wider pressures KCC is now confronting. Delivering major schemes on schedule is becoming increasingly difficult, adding to concerns about what further pressures might emerge over the winter.
Politically, the situation has become increasingly contested. Lib Dem opposition leader Antony Hook accused the administration of “hurtling towards financial oblivion,” arguing Reform had “lost control of the budget”. Conservative councillors have also criticised the new leadership, pointing to stalled highways works and warning of ‘inexperience.’ The financial situation has even reached Westminster. During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer said his “sympathy was with the people of Kent,” citing what he called the “staggering incompetence” of the Reform-led authority. His remarks followed the suspension and expulsion of several Reform councillors in recent weeks. Reform deputy leader Richard Tice rejected the claims as “absolute nonsense,” blaming national failings in adult social care funding.
KCC says it is not seeking Exceptional Financial Support and still expects to set a balanced budget for 2026/27 within the 5% council tax limit. But with reserves projected to fall sharply, and pressures in adult social care showing little sign of easing, the council faces a demanding second half of the year.
Whether the measures already in place, including the halt on non-essential spending, will be enough to steady the position, or whether further cuts and delays lie ahead, will become clearer as Kent moves into the winter and the next phase of its budget planning.
Latest financial declarations of Kent MPs
The Register of Members’ Financial Interests is where all MPs must register donations, gifts, and hospitality they receive. On the most recent update to the register, some Kent MPs have had some pretty substantial additions to declare:
Tony Vaughan (Labour, Folkestone and Hythe) continues to receive big sums for his work as a barrister before he became an MP. This time he received over £9,300 for 35 hours of work carried out before July 24.
Naushabah Khan (Labour, Gillingham and Rainham) received a £3,000 political donation from Homes for Britain, a YIMBY movement supporting the construction industry, for campaigning purposes.
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative, Tonbridge) went on two trips: One to Washington DC to speak at a conference funded by With Honor Action, a US organisation using veterans to fight political polarisation, and a second to New York, paid by Newest, to give a speech on UK-Europe relations. The value of both trips totalled over £1,000.
Polly Billington (Labour, East Thanet) received a trip valued at over £800 to Copenhagen as part of the all-parliamentary group on renewables and sustainable energy, where she held high level meetings on decarbonising heat and energy.
Roger Gale (Conservative, Herne Bay and Sandwich) also received a trip valued at £800 from a principality in Cyprus to attend events, meet the President, Members of Parliament, and others.
Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat, Tunbridge Wells) received a private donation of £800 from Dominic Mathon.
LGR: Endgame
Councils across Kent have spent the past week deciding their final positions on local government reorganisation and their preferred model for their area's future. The government would have been hoping that there would be a broad consensus across the county, but that is very much not the case.
All five proposed models have received support in some parts, but some are likely more realistic than others, with two models standing out as the most likely outcome from the exercise.
Kent County Council’s ‘spoke in the works’ plan remains unlikely to get anywhere, as it doesn’t meet any of the rules put forward by the government. But KCC have stuck with it, submitting it as their final preferred option. The proposal doesn’t so much boost local democracy as concentrate more at County Hall. No unitary of this scale has ever been attempted in the UK, and the government is unlikely to take a chance on one now. This scale would either result in councillors representing an unwieldy number of residents or in a council with hundreds of representatives. Neither is likely to be appealing. It also undermines the government’s stated aim of moving to mayoral authorities in the future. It’s unlikely we’ll be hearing from this one again in the future.
The three-unitary model was the early frontrunner in the county, with five districts initially supporting it. That has changed slightly as the process has continued, with only four supporting it in the end: Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, and Tunbridge Wells. By happy coincidence for those four districts, grouping them would bring together the richest tax base in Kent and the lowest levels of debt, something that very much couldn’t be said for the two other unitaries that would be left.
The messy fudge of a map was seen as the primary four-unitary model throughout the process, but in the end, support has somewhat ebbed away. Only Swale, Thanet, and Dover are supporting this model. It’s not an awful map in the east or west, but the idea of a district that places Sheppey and Dungeness in the same area was always going to be something of a stretch.
Medway’s alternative four-unitary map was initially greeted with horror after the authority sprung it on other Kent leaders unannounced. It was also the only proposal that suggested redrawing district boundaries, which sparked outrage that Medway was trying to annex other parts of the county, even though Medway would give up more area than it would lose. Some of the borders do make more logical sense, following hard lines like motorways than random diagonals across fields. Medway seem to have convinced at least some others of the plan's merits, with Ashford and Canterbury both choosing to support it.
The wild five-unitary spite map created by Dartford and Gravesham unsurprisingly found no support outside of those two boroughs. Seemingly irritated by the Medway proposal to break up their boroughs, Dartford and Gravesham came back with a plan that would literally split Medway down the river, which is quite the power move. Four of the five created authorities would be smaller than the government would like, so it’s unlikely to get anywhere, but it’s amusing nonetheless.
All proposals need to be submitted to the government by next week, which is why there has been a flurry of decisions this week. The intent is for the government to analyse and consult on the plans through the first half of next year, before deciding which direction our county will head in ahead of the changes in 2028.
Place your bets now.
In brief
🗳️ Sevenoaks District Council has had a third leader since last year, with Cllr Kevin Maskell taking over the authority. Cllr Roddy Hogarth was forced to step down following a split in the ruling Conservative group and losing a vote of no confidence.
🥩 Dover District Council leader Kevin Mills has warned that the government cannot wait to start tackling the trade in illegal meat coming through the Port of Dover. A report by MPs found enforcement weaknesses at the border, leading to tonnes of illegal meat travelling through the port.
🏗️ Prices have been revealed for a nutrient mitigation scheme around the River Stour, which should unlock housebuilding across a wide area of Kent.
More Currents
Last year, Labour swept into power with a staggering majority, including across a number of seats in Kent that they had either never held or hadn’t won in a very long time. Yet, just over a year later, that majority feels increasingly fragile. Paul Francis examines where the party finds itself in the county and whether Kent MPs could be about to break ranks…
Standfast
Paul Francis was the KM’s Political Editor for the best part of three decades. He writes for us on whether Labour’s current position might force some Kent MPs to break ranks…
Footnotes
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£3,000 from a lobby group. Fine in our 'Honourable' political system.