Perth and Kinross Council Budget Consultation 2026-2027

To help guide our decisions when proposing a Council budget for 2026/2027, we asked for your feedback on what is most important to you and your community. We wanted to know what you think about our priorities, and where we should invest for the future.

We also wanted to understand where you would prefer any budget savings to come from. Which service areas did you most want to see protected, and where were you willing, if necessary, to accept reductions (by stopping or reducing frequency), or by offsetting costs through charging to protect those services?

A total of 946 people responded to the consultation.

Perth and Kinross Council met on 4 March 2026 to decide on a budget for 2026/2207. What you told us in your consultation responses was fed back to elected members prior to the meeting, so they could consider the information you provided when making decisions. 

Overall, 52.96% of respondents opted for a lower than 9.5% increase in Council Tax.

Recurring themes in responses from residents included: 

• Improved road maintenance and safety
• Environment and cleanliness should improve
• Economic investment should support thriving communities.
• Criticism of poor street cleaning and green space maintenance
• Requests for guaranteed funding for libraries, which were were described as essential hubs for learning and social connection.
• Calls for increased school resources, mental health support, and attendance interventions.
• Investment in transport subsidies such as Free Bus Saturdays were questioned.

A Council Tax rise of 8.9% was approved for 2026/2027.

The agreed budget for 2026/2027 included the following investment: 

• Longer-term funding for roads, pavements and bridges with an additional £15 million over three years - the largest single investment of its kind ever made by the Council. This comes alongside doubling the resources for gully cleaning and ditch maintenance.
• Investing in a Greenspace Enhancement Squad to help improve public spaces by supporting planting and other environmental improvements. This comes alongside the rejection of proposed cuts to street cleaning. 
• £200,000 for a new City Centre Improvement Taskforce, which will deliver visible enhancements over the spring and summer. If this pilot project proves successful it could be rolled out to other towns in future years. 
• The Council Tax increase was largely driven by the pressure on health and social care, which is itself a result of our twin challenges of an ageing population and the additional costs of delivering care across a geographically dispersed area. Funding was included to undertake a feasibility study on what a care village approach might look like in Perth and Kinross.
• Accelerating work to develop the Eco-Innovation Park at Perth West for new and growing businesses, adding £750,000 for the Adapt Your Property initiative to help bring vacant buildings back into use, and reduce parking charges in multi-storey car parks to encourage more use of these and long-stay car parks and free up short stay spaces.
• The provision of community libraries was protected.
• Subsidised supporrt for free bus travel on the first Saturday of every month ended on 7 March 2026. Following the end of this pilot the learning from how this impacted on bus journeys in the area is being used to inform the further development of our public transport transformation project.
• £1.1 million to support local communities to deliver projects to tackle issues in their areas, including improving biodiversity and countering the effects of poverty and the cost of living.
• £306,000 for education and learning to support care-experienced and vulnerable young people, develop outdoor learning spaces for children with more complex additional support needs, and to accelerate repairs and maintenance in rural primary schools.
• £347,000 to support services for our most vulnerable people including RASAC, Women's Aid, The Neuk and community mental health support groups.
• £225,000 to maintain community halls and current opening hours for rural libraries, museums and the art gallery.
• £150,000 to establish a fund to provide grants and advice to owners of properties at risk of flooding in areas not covered by a Flood Risk Management Plan.
• £150,000 for inspections, repairs and maintenance of play park facilities and £100,000 to refurbish the Auchterarder multi-use games area (MUGA).

Council Leader, Councillor Eric Drysdale, said: "Residents across Perth and Kinross expect us to take responsible decisions that protect essential services and plan ahead for the future. This is a budget grounded in reality, shaped by what people have told us, and focused on meeting the needs of our communities. Our investment in care recognises the scale of the challenge we face, while our commitment to the public spaces and our road network reflects what matters most to households and businesses. This budget puts fairness, sustainability and community at its heart."