04.03.26
Across four weeks from November to December 2025, 3,906 people took part in Dundee City Council’s Budget Consultation for 2026/27. The resulting Budget Consultation Report was published on their website in February. Behind these numbers sits a bigger question: beyond balancing next year’s budget, what is the long-term future our elected representatives are working towards for Dundee?
Creative Dundee believes it’s important to highlight these report findings given that residents and visitors committed valuable time, thought and effort to the consultation process, and at demanding point in the calendar year.
With 3,871 responses received online, the report states that it took individuals an average of 48 minutes to complete the consultation. This suggests that people collectively gave approximately 130 days of their time to engage in this process; equivalent to one person working full-time for six months. This, however, doesn’t take into consideration the significant amount of time spent by the staff and communities directly impacted by being listed within the consultation – an amount of time impossible to try and estimate.
The consultation asked people to rate how budget proposals would ‘impact on you’ – an individual framing that was challenging for rating services which aren’t universally used, as we highlighted in last year’s results. Yet what respondents often spoke about was not the individual but the collective; the communities, shared spaces and infrastructure, and the kind of city we want Dundee to be.
When asked which services had become more important over the past year, leisure and culture (libraries, museums, sports centres etc.) came out highest of all services included at 22.5%. The report contains many more interesting stats which we encourage you to read and explore.
“Leisure and cultural services were seen as being important for community wellbeing, especially during the cost‑of‑living crisis therefore this had raised their importance. Residents value libraries, sports centres, swimming pools, museums, and theatres for supporting health and social connection. Free or affordable spaces help reduce isolation, aid children’s development, and provide accessible exercise, notably swimming pools for life-saving skills and people with disabilities. Cultural venues like the DCA and Dundee Rep were noted to be central to Dundee’s identity.”
From page 43 onwards, the report focuses on the impacts of proposed cuts to external community and cultural organisations. Some common themes stand out to us:
Respondents recognised the financial pressures, with suggestions for mitigating cuts including the diversification of income, sharing premises, sponsorship, phased reductions and tiered pricing – with care, and without undermining access.
Those completing the consultation have given energy, time and clarity to the difficult questions posed, but it is hard to know how these responses will influence the final budget decisions. This is despite respondents calling for “stronger long-term strategic direction, and more meaningful opportunities for residents and stakeholders to engage in shaping priorities”.
The scale of the challenges we are collectively facing cannot be achieved through an annual scarcity-mindset consultation, which feels last minute, taking place at the most challenging time of the year. DCC selects the style, format and the wording of these questions – it is not a statutory legal requirement to do a consultation in this exact way. Other local authorities are using a range of methods to consult on budgets; using participatory budget simulator tools for example, and asking ‘how would this proposed cut impact your family, or communities you are part of?’.
If DCC continues working within this same structure, year-on-year, the cumulative damage will leave all of us depleted, with nothing left to cut. This approach does not enable a constructive, democratic route forward, nor will it help us achieve the Community Wealth Building laid out in Scotland’s ambitious new bill.
We need long-term vision from our local and national politicians, combined with ambitious and brave local authority leadership, and collective discussions with action to tackle these significant systemic issues. We need to strengthen democracy through the daily practice of shaping the world we collectively inhabit (community organising, participatory budgeting, considering grandchildren/future generations, people & planet assemblies), and find ways to gather, imagine and move forward together. This work is already being led on the ground in our communities – we need civic leaders to stay engaged between elections and budget setting periods, not only in the run up to them.
If this consultation tells us anything, it is that people are committed to Dundee. When asked: what is your perfect day in Dundee?; what are the unmissable things to see and do in Dundee?; what surprises you about the city?; what needs to happen next? and what might 2030 look like in Dundee?, people show up. The question now is whether DCC can match people’s ambitions for our city, moving beyond popularity ranking-style cuts toward co-designing futures that impact us all beyond short-term election cycles.
Imagine if DCC’s approach shifted to a flourishing mindset, which used to be our prevailing logic model. Imagine if all those collective hours spent filling in the consultation and rallying people to oppose these cuts was spent instead energising positive ways forward. How might this change the tone of the conversation and the direction of travel for our city?
With the final DCC 2026/27 budget due to be decided at the City Governance Committee on Thu 5 March, and as election season approaches, we invite you to ask your local and national elected representatives and local authority staff not only how they will save money, but what long-term vision are they committed to building? And how are their policies making this future real?
2025:
Our Year in Review 2025: Less About Us and More About a City that Cares
Dundee Budget Consultation Gathering
Protect Our Dundee – Your Voice is Needed!
Dundee: A City of Culture Cuts?
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