Posted on Thursday 13th February 2025
Ian Parry, pictured, said the council was in a position to maintain essential services while investing in job creation and quality of life.
Staffordshire County Council’s £735 million budget has been approved for the coming year.
The meeting of Full Council heard that the authority – which is already spending an extra £45 million over three years to maintain roads – is now committing up to £15 million more in 2025/26 for additional work on potholes, drainage and preventative highways maintenance.
At the same time it is also providing £18 million to upgrade the country parks at Cannock Chase and Chasewater, as well as improving the 92-mile Staffordshire Way, and is committing £5 million to update libraries.
However, two-thirds of the council’s spending is allocated to keeping vulnerable children and adults safe and cared for.
Ian Parry, Staffordshire County Council’s 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.
And 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.”
Full Council heard that recent inflation, rising energy and construction costs, wage increases and staff shortages in certain sectors had all added to the authority’s costs.
And while the increase in the National Living Wage had been expected, the Budget’s changes to employer National Insurance contributions had cost an extra £4.8 million.
The meeting approved a Council tax of 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 the third lowest in the country for a county authority. For a home in Band D that will mean an additional £1.48 per week for the county council portion in 2025/26.
Acknowledging the receipt of additional, or restructured Government funding for areas such as adult social care, and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Ian Parry said the money was welcome, but didn’t address the underlying issues.
He said:
The cost of adult social care falls disproportionately on larger, rural counties such as Staffordshire and requires a Governmental response rather than local taxpayers shouldering an ever-increasing burden.
At the same time, Government funding for SEND has been outstripped by demand across the country, let alone Staffordshire.
Both these are major issues affecting local taxpayers but ones that need addressing nationally if we are to continue balancing the books as we have so far.”