Every year we must balance the budget while still providing essential services like social care, waste collection, housing, and road maintenance. Most of our funding comes from council tax and business rates, which support around 450 services for 380,000 residents.
Ahead of setting the budget for 2026/27, we invited residents to use an interactive online Budget Simulator to balance the budget.
The exercise showed the challenge of balancing the budget and asked people to prioritise which services to allocate funding to. Here’s what we learned.
Summary
The Budget simulator engagement ran between the 4 November to 2 December 2025.
In total 745 submitted a balanced budget of which 650 provided their demographic data.
A follow-up survey showed that 59% of respondents said the simulator helped them understand the council’s budget better.
Based on this feedback, we’ve reopened the budget simulator so more people can explore the challenge. Please note: any budgets submitted now are for learning purposes only. They will not be collected or used as part of the official engagement exercise, which has now closed.
What did the budget challenge reveal?
The results of the exercise give an indication of residents’ priorities, though they only reflect those who took part.
On average the top 5 largest budget reductions were:
- Adult Social Care Commissioned Services: -5.31%
- Financial and Commercial: -4.78%
- Democratic and Electoral: -4.58%
- Adult Social Work: -4.15%
- Health and Activity: -4.02%
On average the Top 5 increases (or smallest reductions) were:
- Highways: +0.97%
- Waste Operations: -0.92%
- Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management: -1.29%
- Harbours: -1.77%
- Economic Growth and Development: -1.79%
Council tax
On average, in order to submit a balanced budget, people suggested increasing Council Tax by about 7.6%. This would raise income from £342 million to £368 million and cut spending from £479 million to £462 million.”
Important to note
The Budget Simulator was designed as an engagement tool, not a formal consultation or referendum.
While the simulator showed an average council tax increase of 7%, the maximum Dorset Council could increase council tax by is 4.99%, which is the limit set by central government for councils with social care responsibilities without triggering a local referendum.
Additional feedback
Residents shared over 120 comments after submitting their budget. Common themes included:
- comments on how to change the tool/ engagement exercise
- calls for efficiency and better use of digital
- concerns about wasted funds
- mixed views on council tax increases
- ideas for alternative funding and community involvement
Who took part
745 people responded of which 650 shared their demographic data.
- most were aged 40 to 65+, with 18% aged 25 to 39 and 24% aged 65+
- 59% male, 29% female, 12% preferred not to say
- 16% identified as having a disability
- 80% White British, 13% preferred not to say
What happens next
Your feedback has been shared with councillors ahead of setting the 2026/27 budget. It will help inform decisions.
You can read a report of the full findings from the budget engagement challenge here.