RESIDENTS will face a tax rise of almost 5% after it was agreed by Staffordshire County Council.
The authority agreed its £735million budget for the coming financial year at a meeting this week.
It means that Band D properties will pay £1,621.33 for county council services in 2025-26 – an extra £1.48 a week compared to last year.
Elected members were told that despite the 4.99% rise, Staffordshire’s council tax was the third lowest in the country for a county authority.
Cllr Ian Parry, cabinet member for finance and resources, said:
“We are not allowed to borrow to make ends meet – and nor would we wish to – so we must live within our budget.
“For every £10 we have, nearly £7 is spent on keeping vulnerable children and adults safe and cared for. Everything else we do is funded by what is left.
“However, thanks to years of careful management and planning ahead, we’re in a position to not only maintain essential services, but we’re able to invest in both job creation and quality of life.”
The budget also saw an additional £15million investment in road repairs and maintenance agreed.
The money will come from a one-off corporate reserve.
Cllr Parry said:
“We recognise that climate change is having a major impact on our finance and budget in Staffordshire. We have seen over the last few years the number of storms, the heavy persistent rain and the difficulties in managing flooding.
“Last year we increased our spend on recovery from winter damage. We have decided to continue that level of funding and that will increase the amount of work we can do on gully emptying and defect fixing.
“But we want to do more and we can announce that we will release an extra £15million from our reserves.
“We believe that contingency is significantly higher than we need to hold and therefore this is an opportunity to reinvest that money we’ve put aside – which is council taxpayers’ money – to reinvest in a climate response fund and to spend an extra £15million on top of the £5million we’ve already allocated.
“This may mean additional Pothole Pros, teams to tackle flooding, more gully emptying and more dig downs, that will hopefully arrest that issue of climate change and put us in a better position.
“This is not the end of it. This is going to be a struggle we are going to have to face over the next few years. But it’s a start –and I think it is a significant amount that we are investing in our roads and something taxpayers and road users will welcome.”
