About the Council budget savings proposals 2026-27 engagement and consultation

The Council is committed to consulting with local people, businesses, groups, trade unions, staff and other interested parties throughout our budget setting process to:

  • be as open, fair and transparent as possible.
  • meet our responsibilities under best value statutory guidance.
  • ensure we meet our specific duties under the public sector equalities legislation.
  • and, most importantly, to provide councillors with more information to help them make difficult decisions when setting the budget.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs)

To ensure the Council complies with its public sector equality duty, and to ensure budget setting is carried out in as fair and as transparent a way as possible, the draft proposals are subject to a systematic process of ‘Equality Impact Assessments’ (EIAs).

This EIA process helps identify if any of the budget proposals may affect any particular groups more so than the district’s population as a whole. If this were the case, this would be considered to be a ‘disproportionate impact’ on those people.

Where any potential disproportionate impact on the groups identified in the equality legislation, and against our locally agreed protected characteristics of low income and care leaver, is highlighted, we will consider the actions that could be taken to mitigate those negative effects.

You can view these assessments in full here:

What are we engaging and consulting on?

We are engaging and consulting on our budget saving proposals for 2026-27. The detail of what we are engaging and consulting on is published in these pages and documents as shown in the 'Documents' panel on this page.

Printed copies of the proposals will be available on request – please call 01274 431000 if you would like to request a copy.

The Executive has demonstrated in the past that it is prepared to listen and to modify, change and, if appropriate, withdraw proposals in response to the outcomes of engagement with the public.

How to take part

Website: you can give us your views through our website.

Post: you can send feedback by post, free of charge, as outlined below:

  1. Use the printable form (PDF) or request a copy by calling this 01274 431000.
  2. Pop it in an envelope.
  3. On the FRONT of the envelope – please write

    Freepost Bradford Council

    ONLY on the front, all in one line and in the middle of the envelope.
  4. On the BACK of the envelope – please write

    Budget consultation

    (and nothing else).

Example of front and back of envelope

  • Please be as specific as you can in your feedback.
  • Tell us which proposal(s) are of interest to you and what improvements or alternatives you think the Council could consider.
  • If you are feeding back about more than one proposal, if possible please give your feedback separately for each particular proposal, such as on separate sheets of paper or in a clearly sectioned list. You can, of course, send this all to us together in the same envelope.

Social media: Social media is not being used as a formal channel for consultation. However, where specific views about proposals are shared in direct response to social media posts about this consultation, we will endeavour to include these as part of the overall feedback.

Consultation timeline

The consultation will be open until Tuesday, 16 December 2025. This allows Executive members time to give due regard to any new equality impacts and proposal recommendations. The sooner you can send us your comments the better.

Feedback from the consultation process will inform the development of the Executive’s final budget saving recommendation which will be published in February 2026, prior to the Council meeting on Tuesday, 10 March 2026.

  • Tuesday, 4 November 2025 – Public consultation launched on the Council website and promoted through a range of communications methods.
  • Tuesday, 16 December 2025 - public online consultation closes against these proposals, to give the Council’s Executive time to fully consider all the feedback.
  • Tuesday, 10 March 2026 - Council’s Executive recommends its 2026-27 budget saving proposals to Full Council.

Return to: Have your say on the Proposed Financial Plan and Budget proposals for 2026-27

Related pages

Documents