The cabinet member responsible for Wandsworth’s finances admitted last night that the council is using reserves to “plug any gap” in its budget, as official papers revealed a £137m shortfall that the council has no plan to fill.
Cllr Angela Ireland, Cabinet Member for Finance, made the admission at last night’s Finance Committee meeting, where councillors voted to recommend the 2026-27 budget to Cabinet. The committee heard that £38m of reserves will be drawn down in the coming year alone, the equivalent, on the council’s own figures, of a 50 percentage rise in council tax.
The two-year gap (£62m in 2027-28 and £92m in 2028-29) appears on page 77 of the budget papers, buried in an appendix. The usable reserves available to cover it will be approximately £122m – less than the combined shortfall.
Which means that if the budget that was voted on and approved at the Finance Committee last night was stuck to, Wandsworth Council would be bankrupt in two years.
The plan that isn’t a plan
The council’s answer to the gap is a £45m transformation programme, savings it says will materialise over three years. But Chief Executive Andrew Travers told the committee the £45m target was “a broad, reasonable aspiration to get us going,” not a figure derived from identified savings.
The medium-term financial strategy that will set out how those savings will actually be achieved is not due until September 2026, after the budget is formally set by Full Council next month.
Paper 26-63, the official budget document, acknowledges the problem directly. “These [reserves] cannot be used indefinitely,” it states, “and, as in previous years, the Council will need to identify efficiencies and other sources of income to help meet the ongoing budget shortfall.” The council’s own paper describes the strategy as unsustainable. It offers no alternative.
Cllr Aled Richards-Jones, leader of the Conservative opposition, put the arithmetic plainly during the meeting. “The usable reserves are forecast to be a hundred and twenty-one million pounds,” he said. “That’s less than the one hundred and thirty-seven million budget gap.” No officer or cabinet member disputed the figures.
Cllr Peter Graham added: “Even with a forty-five million pound transformation programme there is a bigger use of reserves to balance the budget required in 27-28, 28-29 than there are reserves left.”
The question Ireland didn’t answer
There is of course one way the council could fill the gap without cutting services: raise council tax steeply.
Normally that would require a public vote if the rise exceeds 5%. But the government has given Wandsworth special dispensation for 2027-28 and 2028-29. In those two years, the council can raise council tax by any amount without asking residents.
The budget papers say the council “will not” do this. When asked at last night’s meeting, Ireland used different words: there were “no current plans” for rises above the normal threshold, she said.
Asked repeatedly to explain the difference, she said: “I think I’ve said everything I need to say on this.”
What the numbers mean
Cllr Matthew Corner translated the £38m reserve drawdown for residents. “The £38m being used to plug the revenue budget for this coming year is the equivalent of a 50% increase in council tax.” The council’s own papers confirm the arithmetic. Paper 26-63 states that one percentage point of council tax is worth £0.77m. That makes £38m equivalent to roughly 50 percentage points.
The vote passed with Labour members voting in favour and Conservatives against. Cllr Tony Belton, a Labour member, declined to vote. He told the meeting: “I don’t want to set a budget at all.”
A year of warnings confirmed
In March 2025, Putney.news first warned that Wandsworth was sitting on a “ticking timebomb” of unsustainable reserve drawdowns, with £11.5m being drawn that year. The figure is now £38m.
In June 2025, we explained how the end of Wandsworth’s low council tax model was structurally inevitable under the government’s Fair Funding Review. In July, the 2024-25 accounts confirmed a £40m overspend, with reserves falling faster than forecast.
In October, we reported that the council faced a financial cliff edge and that the transformation programme was speculative. This evening, the Chief Executive confirmed it was. In December, we set out what the end of low council tax would mean for residents.
Last night’s meeting was the moment the council’s own senior figures provided the language. Ireland called it the “brutal use of reserves to plug any gap.” Travers called the £45m target an aspiration. Neither offered a plan.
What happens next, and what you can do
The budget goes to Cabinet on Monday. Full Council will formally set it next month. Both meetings are open to the public. Check the council’s democracy portal at wandsworth.gov.uk for times and public participation details.
To raise concerns before the Full Council vote, contact your ward councillor. Full contact details are at wandsworth.gov.uk.
Ireland committed at last night’s meeting to bringing a new medium-term financial strategy to committee in autumn 2026, after the May election. That strategy will set out, for the first time, how the £45m transformation savings will actually be achieved. If it does not arrive, or does not contain a credible plan, that is the next story.
Ireland closed the meeting with a guarantee. “Whatever happens we will maintain a low council tax. It will still be the lowest in the country. But that’s my guarantee.”
Seven weeks before polling day, with £137m of gaps and no plan to fill them, that guarantee rests entirely on reserves the council’s own papers say cannot be used indefinitely.
Labour are a bunch of scammers trying to win votes by sending out 0% increase in tax whilst they sell the silverware quietly to bankrupt us all. The sooner they are voted out the better
I have in the past asked how much the “Access For All” programme is costing. I have seen suggestions that it is not costing residents a penny, but with no explanation where the funding is coming from – perhaps the magic money tree. Even though I asked the question using the Freedom of Information Act I was told it was not yet possible to publish the figures. Off course I have not seen or heard anything further. I wonder how many people will be persuaded to vote in the forthcoming elections based on the number of covert bribes on offer. I spoke to a fellow protester at one of the demonstrations I was attending in London , who told me that her daughter would be voting for Sadiq Khan in the forthcoming mayoral elections because of the free school meals she benefited from. [My fellow protester was horrified].