What has changed since last autumn is the weapon, not the war.
Richmond Council would like your name on a fight it has been having since last autumn.
On 16 September it opened a consultation asking people across the borough — Barnes, Castelnau and Mortlake included — to back its campaign against government funding reforms it says will take £29m a year out of Richmond by 2028/29. Council leader Gareth Roberts puts it more starkly still: the changes would strip the borough of "nearly 60%" of its core funding, he says, the biggest percentage cut of any London borough. Deputy leader Jim Millard says the consultation "gives residents an opportunity to make their voices heard".
What has changed since last autumn is the weapon, not the war.
In November the council was preparing to take the government to court over the funding formula, warning then of losses of up to £45m a year. It dropped the legal threat on 26 November, after ministers softened their position and offered a settlement holding Richmond's cash flat for three years. December's provisional figures brought the projected loss down again: around £9m in the first year, rising to £29m by the third.
Now it is a consultation instead. The answers will feed a formal proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act, a route that lets a council put its case to central government — and nothing more. There is no power in it to force a change.
The harder question is which services would go. No list of services at risk has been published alongside the campaign, and we have not found a closing date or a place to respond in the council's published material. Its claim to face London's steepest percentage cut is its own; we have seen no independent comparison with other boroughs' settlements.
Barnes feels council money in ordinary ways — the Common mown, the pond looked after, the library open, the bins gone by Tuesday, care for people who need it. If £29m really is coming off, anyone being asked to back a campaign is owed some sense of what goes first. The question for October is whether the council follows this with a service-by-service account of what is at risk, or whether the whole exercise ends up as a strongly worded letter with a lot of names attached.
- Richmond Council says government funding reforms will strip £29m a year from the borough by 2028/29
- The council calls this the largest percentage reduction in core funding of any London borough
- A resident consultation launched 16 September 2026 will feed into a formal proposal under the Sustainable Communities Act
- Richmond threatened judicial review over the funding formula in November 2025 but dropped it on 26 November after a government climb-down to a cash-flat three-year settlement
- The £29m figure comes from the December 2025 provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, down from an earlier warning of up to £45m/over 90% of funding
- The council has not published which services would be cut, saying it will ask residents which services they value most
- The location and closing date of the new consultation were not found in published material
Every factual claim in this story is linked to the evidence behind it. Where the newsroom has added judgement or framing, it is listed separately. Sources accessed 23 September 2026.
- Richmond Council campaign against funding cuts (council)
- Local Government Lawyer coverage of Richmond funding dispute (media)
- Teddington Nub News coverage of Richmond Council funding settlement (media)
- www.richmond.gov.uk (council)
Claim by claim (9 facts, 8 editorial judgements)
- Richmond Council published a news item on 16 September 2026 urging residents to back its campaign against government funding reforms that would strip £29 million a year from the borough by 2028/29 — council, 2026-09-16“Richmond Council is urging residents to back its campaign against government funding reforms which would strip £29 million a year from the borough by 2028/29 and put vital local services under severe ”
- The council says the proposals would leave Richmond facing the biggest percentage reduction in core funding of any London borough — council, 2026-09-16“The proposals would leave Richmond facing the biggest percentage reduction in core funding of any London borough.”
- Council Leader Gareth Roberts said the reforms would strip Richmond of nearly 60% of its core funding, calling it the biggest percentage cut in London — direct_statement, 2026-09-16“By stripping Richmond of nearly 60% of its core funding – the biggest percentage cut in London – the government risks financially destabilising this council.”
- Deputy Leader Jim Millard said the consultation gives residents an opportunity to make their voices heard — direct_statement, 2026-09-16“This consultation gives residents an opportunity to make their voices heard.”
- The council is using consultation responses to inform a formal proposal to government under the Sustainable Communities Act — council, 2026-09-16
- In November 2025 Richmond Council threatened judicial review over the Fair Funding Review 2.0, at that point citing potential losses of up to £45 million annually, over 90% of its then current funding — media, 2025-11-01
- On 21 November 2025 the government issued a revised policy statement indicating Richmond would get a cash-flat settlement over three years, and the council said the most severe cuts originally proposed would not be applied — council, 2025-11-21“the most severe cuts originally proposed will now not be applied”
- Richmond Council dropped its judicial review plans on 26 November 2025 — media, 2025-11-26
- The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement in December 2025 projected Richmond's funding losses rising from around £9m in year one to £29m by 2028/29, down from earlier projections of £12m–£45m — council, 2025-12-23
- Judgement: The council says it has delivered close to £60m in savings over eight years, a figure that appears restated from an earlier November 2025 figure of approximately £50 million since 2018
- Judgement: The location and closing date of the resident consultation have not been located in the council's published material
- Judgement: Framing the September consultation as a change of weapon rather than a change of argument: the council swapped a legal threat for a consultation while the numbers moved in its favour.
- Judgement: Characterising the Sustainable Communities Act route as one that lets a council put its case to central government and nothing more, with no power to force a change.
- Judgement: Judgement that the harder question the council is not answering is which services would go.
- Judgement: Judgement that people in Barnes feel council money through the Common, the pond, libraries, bin rounds and social care, and are owed a sense of what would go before being asked to back a campaign.
- Judgement: The closing question about whether the council publishes a service-by-service account of what is at risk, or whether the consultation amounts to a strongly worded letter with a lot of names attached.
- Judgement: Describing the council's claim to face the biggest percentage cut in London as its own characterisation, not independently established.
Photograph: Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source · licence
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