Worthing budget borrows from government

For the second year running, Worthing Borough Council has had to ask the government for millions of pounds to help balance its budget.

During a meeting of the full council, leader Sophie Cox announced that the authority’s application to the Exceptional Financial Support Scheme for up to £5million had been approved.

The scheme is not a grant, but permission to borrow – a line of credit that the council can draw from as and when required. It will need to be repaid.
In 2025/26, the council applied for £2million from the scheme, which was approved and later increased to £4.75million.

Sophie Cox, leader of the council, said: “That support reflects both the scale of the pressures that we face and the confidence that we are managing our finances responsibly.

“We’ve remained disciplined, limited borrowing where possible and prioritised external funding for major projects.”

It’s been almost four years since Labour took control of the council but Ms Cox said they could not ignore ‘the position that we inherited’.

She was largely referring to the Worthing Integrated Care Centre, a project which was launched under the previous administration and which she called a ‘£30million-plus financial liability’.

The centre, which was built on a former car park in Stoke Abbott Road, was due to open in January last year but issues, including the presence of Legionella bacteria in the water supply and a fault with the water system, meant it has stayed closed.

Ms Cox said: “We are doing everything we can, within our power, to see the building opened. But it remains deeply regrettable that this council is funding and delivering a building for the NHS at such financial risk to local taxpayers.

“It was a risky project at inception and the risk has only escalated.”

Following what Ms Cox called a ‘difficult but productive’ year, the council’s net budget requirement for 2026/27 sits at £24,655,120.

The regeneration of the town centre and seafront will be a key priority, while storm damage on parts of the pier will be fixed.

Improved coastal defences will be completed and Montague Gardens –  described as ‘the new green heart of the town centre’ – will welcome its first visitors.

Work will progress on a plan to secure the future of the lido, while the regeneration of the former Grafton multi-storey car park site will push ahead.

While the budget was approved, it was by no means unanimous. Thomas Taylor (Con, Marine) criticised its ‘absence of vision’, saying it had ‘no bold plans for economic growth’ and showed ‘a council in managed decline’

Carl Walker (Worthing Community Independents, Selden) said the financial support scheme was ‘effectively treating day-to-day spending as a long-term debt’. He added: “There’s a pay-day-loan mentality where we’ve got a sticky plaster solution that fails to address the underlying financial stability and merely delays insolvency for local authorities like ours.”

As well as approving the budget, the authority increased its portion of council tax bills by 2.97 per cent.

The rise will see the average Band D bill go up by £8.19 from April, taking them from £275.67 to £283.86. On top of this, residents face a £15 increase from Sussex Police and an £89.82 increase from the county council.

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