Only 0.1% of residents reply to budget survey

Politicians have questioned whether the way Cornwall Council engages with residents is "broken" after 0.1% of people responded to a consultation on its priorities and budget proposals.

A total of 909 people out of a population of about 600,000 responded to the consultation, which ran from November 2025 to 18 January.

Labour councillor Kate Ewert said: "I worked it out as about 0.1% of the population of Cornwall have even engaged in this."

The council has proposed a budget increase from £842m in 2025/26 to £958m in 2028/29, and a council tax rise of 4.9% annually over the next three years. It has also proposed savings of about £50m in 2026/27 – rising to £133m over three years.

A scrutiny meeting was told there is a £13m shortfall this year due to changes in local government funding, according to the Local Democracy Reporting service.

Ewert said she was concerned by the public response.

"How low do we go before we say, actually, the people of Cornwall are so disinterested or do not agree with it," she said.

A council officer said more than 900 people taking the time to give their opinion was a "good result" and the consultation was given "lots of promotion".

Green councillor, Drew Creek, said: "Just to flip the number on its head – 99.85% of residents didn't respond to this survey, which has been described as a 'satisfactory sample'. I'm not sure I'd agree.

"It seems ridiculous to me that in a population of 600,000 we've got less than 1,000 respondents."

The committee will ask the council's cabinet to explore setting up citizens assemblies to discuss future annual budgets. The cabinet will propose the budget on 11 February before it goes to a full council meeting on 24 February.

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