Posted on Tuesday 3rd December 2024
Ian Parry, pictured, said years of strong financial management enabled the council to keep investing in communities.
Investment in Staffordshire’s future will continue next year, despite increasing financial pressure.
Spending planned in Staffordshire County Council’s £711 million budget for 2025/26 includes maintaining highways and clearing gullies, attracting new businesses to create jobs, and investing in school repair and expansion.
Other investment priorities include public health, keeping 42 libraries across the county and running a network of 14 household waste recycling centres.
Not all local authorities are in this position, with several having effectively declared themselves bankrupt this year and they are only focusing on services that must be provided by law.
Ian Parry, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Finance and Resources, said:
Years of strong financial management mean we are still able to strike the right balance and invest in Staffordshire’s future as a place to live, work and study.
However, the effect of inflation, rising energy bills and increasing demand to support our ageing population leaves little money left for other services that we know are important to residents.”
He added:
For every £10 we spend, two-thirds is spent on keeping vulnerable children and adults safe and cared for – and everything else we do is funded by what’s left.
We have a legal and moral obligation to do that, but the reality is that Government funding for care is not keeping up with the growing number of people who need our help, or the increasing costs of giving that help.”
Staffordshire County Council is already spending an extra £45 million over three years to maintain roads – so far repairing 24,000 potholes this year; is investing £18 million to upgrade the country parks at Cannock Chase and Chasewater, as well as improving the 92-mile Staffordshire Way; and committed to £5 million to update and maintain its 42 libraries.
Funding additional support for children with Special Educational Needs (SEND) remains a major pressure on the council: in 2023/24 22,872 children required support, equalling 17.5 per cent of Staffordshire’s school population.
According to the Local Government Association, since the 2014 reforms of the SEND system, the number of children and young people nationally with Education, Health, and Care Plan has increased by 140%.
Ian Parry added:
Again, this is a national issue where rising demand has far outstripped funding increases to local councils.
We have committed more money and appointed more staff to help, but every council spends far more on meeting these children’s needs than is provided by the Government and we need a permanent solution, because this approach is not sustainable in the long term.”
Final decisions will be taken in the New Year once a final settlement from central Government has been provided.
However, the expectation is that Council tax will increase by 4.99 per cent; the figure comprising 2.99 per cent for general purposes and 2 per cent ringfenced for social care.
Staffordshire’s council tax is expected to remain one of the lowest for a county authority. For the average home in the county, in Band D, that would mean an additional £1.48 per week.