Mayor Caroline Woodley hailed the budget’s “great cause for hope” in Hackney before her party was hit by another resignation
Hackney Council will spend over £200million fixing and maintaining the homes it owns this coming financial year alongside £13.6m to fix up the borough’s streets.
The council agreed its budget on Wednesday (March 4) as the ruling Labour group was hit by a dramatic defection to the Green Party in the middle of the meeting.
The spending plans for 2026/27 are partly funded by a 4.99 per cent rise in council tax. Despite “serious financial pressures” over the last decade and beyond, the Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley, said there was now “great cause for hope” in the borough after the council balanced its budget without drawing “a single penny” from its reserves.
Mayor Woodley hailed a recent cash injection from central government which has raised the borough’s core spending power by 25% over a four-year period until 2029/30. She added that this had allowed the local authority to abandon plans to reduce library opening hours in a bid to save £750,000 a year.
However, Hackney Council has confirmed £33.8m in spending cuts in 2026/27 as the borough grapples with a sharp increase in demand for services like social care and homelessness prevention. The local authority is also looking to claw back a further £10m, either from income or through cuts, to balance its books by the end of the decade.
What’s in the budget?
From April, council tax in Hackney will increase by 4.99%, meaning Band D properties will have to pay £2,060.30 next year. The borough’s lower income residents will be entitled to a discount of up to 90%, while council tax is to be doubled for properties left vacant for a year or more.
Most of the budget will be spent on frontline services the council is legally obliged to offer, such as social care, temporary accommodation and support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The council’s spending commitments for the coming year include:
- £201m on managing and maintaining council homes and leasehold properties
- £130m to support financially vulnerable residents
- £8.85m on community safety
- £1.3m for a Domestic Abuse Intervention Service
- £23.5m on street cleaning and waste collection
- £4.4m for recycling domestic and commercial waste, plus extra for further recycling and zero waste initiatives
- £13.6m for managing public highways, cycleways, footpaths and streetlights – including maintaining street trees
- £7.3m on Young Hackney services
The full list of proposals, including the breakdown of council tax changes, can be viewed on the council’s website.
The grass is Greener?
As is customary at annual council budget meetings, opposition groups put forward their own amendments to the budget which are reviewed by the local authority’s finance officer.
The Conservative group had proposed a series of changes, including freezing council tax, reducing spend on damp and mould inspections in the private rented sector, and cutting the highways maintenance budget.
The Green group, meanwhile, said they would invest more in community and voluntary sector grants, impose a Hackney tourist tax, and freeze waste fees for traders at Ridley Road market.
Though Labour’s sizeable majority on the council meant these oppositions were destined to fail, the Greens were nevertheless emboldened by a shock defection halfway through the meeting.
Councillor Soraya Adejare, who was blocked from standing again for Labour at the upcoming May elections, branded the government’s funding offer “totally unacceptable”. To Mayor Woodley’s deep “disappointment” she crossed the floor to support the Greens’ alternative budget.
The Greens later confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she had officially joined their ranks. But the alternative budgets were voted down.
Hackney’s budget for 2026/27 will take effect from April 1, 2026. The local elections will be held on Thursday, May 7.
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