Residents invited to help shape St Helens Borough Council budget for 2026/27
St Helens Borough residents are being invited to take part in an important consultation that will help shape the council's budget for the financial year 2026/27.
Article date: 7 November 2025
Every day, St Helens Borough Council delivers more than 700 services that support communities across the borough - from maintaining roads and parks to providing social care for adults and children, education, as well as waste and recycling collections. These services impact the lives of every resident, and your views are vital in deciding how resources are allocated for the year ahead.
The council is legally required to set a balanced budget, showing how much money will be spent on services and how funds will be generated to support these plans. The budget is divided into two main areas:
· Revenue Budget - Covers day-to-day expenditure for essential services most people use.
· Capital Budget - Funds long-term regeneration and infrastructure projects such as highways improvements and works to public buildings. While capital projects are funded mainly by external grants and borrowing, repayments and interest costs impact the revenue budget and council tax levels.
The council's indicative capital programme is approximately £221 million over 2025/26 and 2026/27, including over £80 million dedicated to regenerating St Helens Town Centre and building a modern multi-modal transport interchange. For 2025/26 alone, the council has budgeted £109 million for major investments in local transport networks and town centres, with an overall net budget of £218.6 million for 2025/26.
Highlights from the previous financial year saw the council support almost 4,000 adults with long term social care, 440 children and young people in care, 3,850 people to live independently in their own home; maintain 100 parks and open spaces, 24,000 street lights, 800km of highway; carry out more than 5,700 carriageway repairs - including potholes -and 7.2 million waste and recycling collections, to name but a few.
Councillor Andy Bowden, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Health, and temporary portfolio holder for finance, said:
"Balancing the budget is a core responsibility for all local authorities, ensuring the high-quality public services residents rely on can continue to be delivered efficiently and sustainably. Rising demand for adult social care and children's services, inflationary pressures, and uncertainty around future funding make this a challenging task.
"As council tax payers, we want resident to have a voice in shaping the future of our borough. This consultation is your opportunity to influence how we continue to invest and prioritise vital services and regeneration projects. As a council working with you, for you - investing for future and delivering for today - we're committed to making decisions that reflect your priorities and deliver the best outcomes for our community."
The consultation is open now and runs until midnight on Friday 28 November, 2025.