Lambeth's budget survey closed on 18 October with 1,561 people taking part; analysis runs to 13 November. The £93m gap is cumulative to 2029-30.
Lambeth Council has launched a campaign called Services Worth Fighting For, and says the borough “faces a further 93million black hole in its finances” (Lambeth).
Updated 19 October: the survey has closed. It shut at 23:59 on Sunday 18 October, and on the morning of 19 October the platform recorded 1,561 participants and 1,396 survey responses. Its “Analysis of results” phase now runs to 13 November. The launch meeting took place on 15 October.
Updated 10 October: the survey has been extended. The Have Your Say platform now gives a closing date of 23:59 on Sunday 18 October, and the public launch meeting is confirmed for Thursday 15 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, in the Assembly Hall at Lambeth Town Hall. Details below.
There is a survey attached to it, and it has a deadline the press release does not mention. The council’s budget engagement survey opened on 10 September. When this article was first published the platform gave a closing date of 7 October. It now gives 23:59 on Sunday 18 October (Lambeth Have Your Say).
That puts the survey deadline three days after the campaign’s public launch meeting on 15 October, rather than eight days before it, as it was when the campaign launched. The platform’s survey phase runs to 18 October, and an “Analysis of results” phase follows from 19 October to 13 November.
When we checked the platform on 14 September it recorded 178 participants and 148 survey responses. On 10 October it recorded 534 participants and 435 survey responses.
The £93m is not a hole in this year’s budget
The figure comes from the council’s own Medium Term Financial Strategy Update Report 2027-2031, which went to Cabinet on 22 July 2026 (Lambeth Cabinet).
It is a cumulative shortfall across three future years, and the report’s Table 4 breaks it down:
| Year | Budget gap | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| 2027-28 | £19.096m | £19.096m |
| 2028-29 | £15.629m | £34.725m |
| 2029-30 | £58.492m | £93.217m |
Two things follow from that table, and neither is in the press release.
The gap has got smaller, not bigger. The report says the 2027-28 gap “has decreased by £17.666m, to £19.096m” compared with the strategy presented in March. At budget-setting in March 2026 the cumulative shortfall over the same three years was £129.598m. It is now £93.217m.
Nearly two thirds of the £93m falls in a single year, 2029-30. The council explains why: “the withdrawal of transitional protection means a fall of £37.582 in government funding in 2029-30 compared to 2028-29.” The figure is in millions, and the transitional arrangements from the February 2026 settlement all end in that year.
Savings of £53m are already agreed
The Cabinet report asks members to confirm the council’s commitment to savings already agreed for those three years:
- 2027-28: £31.132m
- 2028-29: £21.515m
- 2029-30: £0.546m
- Total: £53.193m
So the £93.217m is the gap that remains on top of savings the council has already signed up to deliver.
Lambeth has been on government bailout money for three years
The council is also one of the authorities receiving Exceptional Financial Support, the permission to treat day-to-day spending as capital and fund it by borrowing or selling assets. The government’s published record lists Lambeth at (MHCLG):
- £50.0m agreed in principle for 2024-25
- £46.0m agreed in principle for 2025-26
- £20.0m agreed in principle for 2026-27
That is £116m over three years, and the amount is falling. Lambeth’s own report puts it in a regional context: London is “currently the region most reliant on EFS, with eight boroughs requiring nearly £531m to balance budgets in 2026-27”, up from £503m the year before, taking the running total for London boroughs since 2020-21 to “around £1.7 billion”.
The bill comes back. The report says that fully funding the EFS repayment from asset sales would reduce the budget gap by £8.4m, which is why the council is selling buildings and land.
The first scrutiny meeting is on Thursday, and the main report is missing
Lambeth set up a Finance and Budget Scrutiny Sub-Committee at Full Council on 15 July 2026, chaired by Councillor Chris Nicholson. It meets three times a year, and its first meeting is 7pm on Thursday 17 September (agenda).
Its remit includes gaining assurance on progress against the EFS conditions and on the asset disposal programme that repays them.
Three things stand out in the papers published on 9 September.
- The main item, Quarter 1 results and the revised forecast for the year including options for mitigations, is listed as “Report to follow”. It had not been published as of 14 September, three days before the meeting.
- The work programme names topics only for the September meeting. The rows for 23 November 2026 and 25 January 2027 list lead officers and witnesses but no items.
- The list headed “Issues for potential future scrutiny” contains one line, and it is a row of seven asterisks rather than a topic.
The witnesses named for every one of those meetings are the Cabinet Member for Finance, the unions and residents.
What the council says
Councillor Michael Chessum, Cabinet Member for Economy, Cost of Living and Empowered Communities, said the campaign “is about fighting together to defend our local services, and being honest about our financial situation”. He said austerity “is a political choice”, and that the new Prime Minister “needs to act quickly to give Councils like ours the resources they need”.
Councillor Zvikomborero Chihoro, Cabinet Member for Finance and Community Wealth Building, said the council would be “creative and pro-active to protect front-line service, rooting out genuine waste, taking services in house, opening the books, and investing to save”.
The council says local services have faced cuts for 16 years as government funding shrank by 30 per cent, and that demand for services such as housing homeless families has risen without funding to match. Its own report names the same pressures: adult social care, children’s social care and temporary accommodation, where demand reached a historical peak in 2024-25.
What it means for you
Three dates, in the order they matter:
- Thursday 15 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm (now held). The campaign’s public launch meeting, in the Assembly Hall at Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill. The council says it is “opening the Town Hall as a space to organise”. Registration is through the event listing on Have Your Say. On 10 October it showed 121 of 150 places taken.
- Sunday 18 October, 23:59 (now closed). The budget engagement survey closed. This is the part with a deadline, and it was 7 October until the council extended it.
- Thursday 17 September, 7pm. The Finance and Budget Scrutiny Sub-Committee met for the first time. Scrutiny meetings are open to the public.
The practical point is the ordering. The survey is the council’s formal route for resident views on the budget. Originally it shut before the meeting that was supposed to launch the campaign around it. The extension means anyone who goes to the meeting on 15 October still has the weekend to fill the survey in.
If you want to see what the council already charges you while this is settled, our Lambeth council tax bands page has the current figures for every band.
Sources
- Lambeth Council, “Services Worth Fighting For campaign launched”, 10 September 2026 for the campaign, the 93 million figure as the council put it, the 16 years and 30 per cent claims, the October 15 meeting and both councillor quotes.
- Lambeth Have Your Say, Lambeth Budget Engagement for the survey window of 10 September to 7 October 2026 as first published, the extended closing date of 18 October and the analysis phase to 13 November as shown on 10 October, the launch meeting time, room and places taken, and the participation counts recorded on 14 September, 10 October and 19 October.
- Lambeth Council, Medium Term Financial Strategy Update Report 2027-2031, Cabinet 22 July 2026 for Table 4, the yearly and cumulative gaps, the £17.666m reduction, the £129.598m March position, the £37.582m funding fall in 2029-30, the £53.193m of agreed savings, the £8.4m EFS effect and the London EFS totals.
- MHCLG, Exceptional Financial Support for local authorities for 2026-27, last updated 18 August 2026, for Lambeth’s in-principle support of £50.0m, £46.0m and £20.0m.
- Finance and Budget Scrutiny Sub-Committee agenda, 17 September 2026 and its work programme report for the committee’s establishment, membership, chair, meeting dates, terms of reference, the “report to follow” item and the blank work programme rows.
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