Havering is one of 14 councils sharing £91m to overhaul costly services. The government named what seven of them will spend it on. Havering was not one of them.
Havering has been allocated £6.75m over the next two years to overhaul its most expensive services, the government confirmed on 15 September. The money is Havering’s share of a £91m pot split between 14 councils in England that are already propping up their budgets with emergency government support.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced the fund as a way to break what it calls “the cycle of dependence on exceptional support”. It is aimed squarely at the two service areas bankrupting councils: temporary accommodation and adult social care.
Havering’s allocation is the fifth largest of the 14.
The department’s release explains what seven of the councils will do with the money. Redbridge is putting AI-powered home devices in to detect and prevent falls. Haringey is buying homes to cut its reliance on private temporary accommodation providers. Bradford is reworking SEND transport. Brighton and Hove is piloting a reablement service closer to the NHS. Trafford, Stoke-on-Trent and West Berkshire each get a paragraph.
Havering does not. The department names it in the list of recipients and in the allocations table, and says nothing about what its £6.75m is for. Neither does the council. Its own response, published on 18 September, runs to more than 600 words without naming a single project.
Who got what
The 14 allocations, as published by the department. They cover the two financial years 2026/27 and 2027/28 together, with £41m nationally in the first year and £50m in the second. The department has not published the split for individual councils.
| Council | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Bradford | £12.7m |
| Stoke on Trent | £9.14m |
| Redbridge | £7.5m |
| Trafford | £7.5m |
| Havering | £6.75m |
| Lambeth | £6.6m |
| Brighton and Hove | £6.4m |
| Sefton | £6.2m |
| Waltham Forest | £6.14m |
| Isle of Wight | £6m |
| West Berkshire | £5m |
| Redcar and Cleveland | £4.8m |
| Haringey | £4.79m |
| Isles of Scilly | £1m |
The listed allocations add up to £90.52m, which the department rounds to £91m.
How it compares with what Havering is borrowing
Exceptional Financial Support is not a grant. It is permission to cover day-to-day costs with borrowing, and the council has to pay it back with interest.
Havering was agreed £77.0m in principle for 2026/27, which is the seventh largest figure in England. Its own quarterly budget report put the amount it now expects to need at £54.2m, as we reported when the food waste service slipped to April.
So the new money is worth roughly one eighth of a single year’s borrowing, and it is spread over two years.
The Leader of the council, Councillor Keith Prince AM, made the same point in his response. He welcomed the funding, then said it “does not go far enough” and “will not, on its own, fix the structural funding gap facing Havering”.
His central ask is unchanged:
We are calling on Government to scrap the requirement for Havering to repay this borrowing, or at the very least remove the interest charges attached to it, so we have a fair chance to balance the books and protect the services residents rely on.
He attributed Havering’s position to “chronic underfunding, rising costs and rapidly increasing demand”, noting that the borough has the second oldest population in London and has seen the capital’s biggest increase in the children’s population. He also said the previous administration “delayed or did not make the right financial decisions in some circumstances”.
The Minister for Local Government, Jim McMahon, described the fund as “providing a blueprint for reform across local government” and said the lessons would shape how future funding is targeted.
What it means for you
This is not money for bins, roads, parks or a lower council tax bill. It is capital for redesigning the services that eat the budget, and the government’s stated purpose is to reduce how much Havering has to borrow in future years rather than to add anything visible now.
Three things follow from that:
- Nothing changes on your street because of this. The £6.75m is split across two financial years and aimed at back-office and service redesign in adult social care and temporary accommodation.
- The borrowing continues. Havering still expects to need £54.2m of exceptional financial support this year, and the repayment terms have not changed. If you want to know how that lands on bills, our Romford council tax bands page sets out what each band currently pays.
- What the money buys is still unpublished. Seven of the 14 councils have a named project in the government’s own release. Havering does not, and its own statement does not fill the gap. Until the council publishes a plan, there is no way for a resident to judge whether the money is well spent.
Sources
- MHCLG: Councils’ high-cost services to be transformed through £91m fund, 15 September 2026 (the £91m total, the 14 councils, the per-council allocations, the named projects, the £41m and £50m yearly split, the McMahon quote)
- Havering Council: Leader responds to Government’s announcement of additional £6.75million funding, 18 September 2026 (Councillor Prince’s full statement)
- GOV.UK: Exceptional Financial Support for local authorities for 2026-27 (Havering’s £77.0m agreed in principle, and every other council’s figure)
- Havering Council Cabinet, Quarter 1 2026/27 budget monitoring report, 16 September 2026 (the £54.2m forecast), reported in full in our food waste story
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