Five things to watch in Herefordshire and Worcestershire politics in 2026

If 2025 was a marker - Reform taking control of a top-tier council, a squabble over local government reform, and unprecedented financial problems - 2026 promises to be even more eye-opening on the political scene across Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

How much does it matter? Will it really affect residents? Here's a look through what we can expect over the next 12 months, now the turkeys have been all but gobbled up.

Budget "challenges" at Worcestershire County Council are hardly new - ever since the age of austerity the authority has been putting one fire out after another.

But things came to a head last year when the council had to ask central government for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) of £33m, as a way of avoiding effective bankruptcy - now it wants about £43m to keep the grim reaper from the door for 2026-27.

The Reform leadership - which came to power last May as a minority administration - is so concerned about the situation, it has suggested council tax might need to be increased up to 10%, unless the government helps them out.

Now cabinet has had a settlement councillors can start number crunching in more detail, and attempt to get a budget approved in February, amid a hot-house of a political cauldron where Reform only holds 26 of the 57 seats.

It could end up being a piece of cake, but that prospect appears unlikely - no wonder that a potential 10% council tax hike is being played down.

If Worcestershire county councillors had not already got enough to row about, along came this issue a few weeks ago - an idea to try and retain staff by offering them bonuses worth up to 10% of their annual salary.

The suggestion is that with local government reform looming, before 2028 the authority could suffer a "brain drain" and lose talented workers to other employers offering more security.

One way to safeguard against that could be to award certain staff these bonuses. Well that was the theory, until it resulted in a right old squabble which has now led to the proposal being postponed.

It was certainly a big factor that led to Reform councillor David Taylor being removed from the cabinet.

The policy will return in 2026, and will need to be voted on by a special panel of councillors. Another disagreement would not be a surprise.

Worcestershire is one of the areas steaming full throttle into some form of local government reform, and by the summer we will know whether there will be one unitary authority for the whole county, or two - one covering the north and one covering the south.

But even if the sun beats down, the mood on one side of the fence could end up very grim indeed.

The county council has teamed up with Wyre Forest District Council to push for a one-county solution, insisting it will save taxpayers money and offer great services.

Every other district council - in Worcester, Malvern, Wychavon, Redditch and Bromsgrove - are pushing for a two-county solution, insisting it will save taxpayers money and ....erm..... offer great services.

The debate has been going back and forth for months - and amid all of that there was this little exclusive we were able to run on leaked council tax slides.

One (hopefully) blazing hot day in the summer of 2026 the government will announce its preferred solution, and it could cause ripples.

Ever since last year Herefordshire Council had been working diligently on plans for a new special educational needs and disabilities (Send) school in the county, only to be told it cannot now go ahead.

The school would have catered for 80 pupils aged between two and 16, but the government now wants the council to focus on improving existing Send provision at mainstream schools instead.

They do have £3.8m to do this, but the u-turn has sparked fury from the Conservative leader of the council, Jonathan Lester, as well as Green MP Ellie Chowns, who are trying to get the government to reconsider.

It is a big problem because the forecasts are so stark - right now there are 1,700 Herefordshire children on an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), often entitling them to specialist support, and that is expected to rise to 2,200 by 2029.

All the existing specialist schools are full, so it has clearly become a political problem. 2026 could be the year those challenges become even more acute.

As political slogans go it could well be a clever one - Herefordshire Council has designated 2026 as its "long year of delivery", with an hefty number of big projects becoming a reality.

There is the £9.8m Hereford Transport hub, linking buses, trains and taxis in a notoriously congested city.

Council leaders also intend to begin work to begin in earnest on the more controversial city bypass scheme by the end of next year.

There is the new £6m Ross-on-Wye enterprise park, the work on turning Shirehall in Hereford into a new library and learning centre, and a new contract to improve the publicly accessible spaces across Herefordshire, as well as all sorts of other things happening.

The challenge will be making sure the year of delivery delivers, on time - and on budget.

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