Reform UK has set its first budget for Lancashire County Council, and it comes with the lowest council tax rise in 12 years.
At the full council budget meeting on 26 February 2026, the Reform administration set a council tax increase of 3.8 per cent for 2026/27. That is made up of a 1.8 per cent general increase and the 2 per cent adult social care precept set by central government. It is 1.2 per cent below the 4.99 per cent maximum that the government allows a council to set without holding a referendum.
In each of the previous two years, under the former Conservative administration, Lancashire’s council tax went up by the full 4.99 per cent. Reform’s first budget brings that down to 3.8 per cent, the lowest increase County Hall has set in well over a decade.
Cllr Tom Pickup, the council’s Lead Member for Finance and Resources, helped set the budget. Reform says the lower rise has been made possible by running the council in a more business-like way since the party took control in May 2025, finding savings and cutting waste rather than reaching straight for the maximum tax rise.
For a typical Band D household, the county council’s share of the bill rises by £65.96 over the year, to £1,801.75.
A lower tax rise is not the whole story, and there is hard work ahead to keep the council’s finances on a sound footing while protecting frontline services. But after years of the bill going up by the maximum allowed, a 12-year low is a clear sign of the difference a Reform administration is set on making.
