By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 10:27 BST, 6 October 2025 | Updated: 10:28 BST, 6 October 2025
Kent County Council, led by Reform UK, is set to hike council tax by the maximum amount next year amid claims a cost-cutting drive has failed.The local authority was one of 10 English councils that Nigel Farage's party seized control of at May's local elections.Reform's success at the ballot box was followed by promises it would slash 'wasteful' spending by councils across the country.The party established a 'DOGE' unit - based on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Elon Musk in the US - to try and cut costs.But Reform members of Kent County Council have admitted they had been unable to find areas for huge savings and would likely have to hike council tax.Diane Morton, Reform's cabinet member for adult social care, told the Financial Times that services in Kent were already 'down to the bare bones'.'We've got more demand than ever before and it's growing,' she said. 'We just want more money.'She added of an expected increase in council tax in Kent: 'I think it's going to be 5 per cent.' Kent County Council was one of 10 English councils that Nigel Farage's party seized control of at May's local elections Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran said her local authority was a test bed for Reform UK's national policiesA 4.99 per cent rise in council tax is the maximum annual hike allowed, in normal circumstances, before councils are required to hold a local referendum.The cap is made up of 2.99 per cent for general spending and a 2 per cent adult social care precept.Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran said her local authority was a test bed for Reform's national policies and the 'shop window through which everybody is going to see what a Reform government might look like'.A third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent said: 'Everyone thought we'd come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren't.'The newspaper reported that Reform's DOGE unit, headed by former party chairman Zia Yusuf, had not yet done detailed work in Kent in part because of tensions over unelected party members gaining access to sensitive council information.Kent has instead set up DOLGE, a Department of Local Government efficiency, run by several cabinet members and said to be independent of Reform's head office.Ms Kemkaran said: 'If and when we get a legal framework in place that allows [DOGE] to come in, and if I need them, I can pick up the phone and say, we found this, we need your help.'But she added: 'We're making such great progress anyway, I don't think we need it.' DOLGE claims to have so far identified £40million in savings to be achieved over four years.This includes abandoning a £30million programme to make homes more energy efficient and scrapping a new fleet of electric cars.Antony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, said: 'During the election they [Reform] said vote for us to fix asylum and now they've discovered... that the county has no role in asylum and won't be able to cut council tax.'They came into power thinking they would find lots of waste to cut, and they haven't identified any.'
