Your Council Tax 2025-26
About the County Council
Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority in Staffordshire, in the centre of England. It covers the areas of East Staffordshire, South Staffordshire, Tamworth, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the Staffordshire Moorlands, but excludes the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Staffordshire is a predominantly rural county, but has its fair share of successful market towns and flourishing businesses. It has a growing population of around 900,000 residents.
The county council is made up of 62 councillors, elected every four years.
What we do
The county council is responsible for:
- Social Care
- Public Health
- Education and Early Years
- Highways and Transport
- Household Waste Recycling (tips)
- Economic growth in the county
Housing, waste collection, street cleaning, environmental health, planning and leisure are the responsibility of our 8 district and borough councils.
Dear resident
As a well-run and financially stable council, we continue to invest in Staffordshire and its people.
Years of strong financial management mean that we can still invest to fix more roads, attract businesses and jobs, protect our countryside, run your libraries and build new and improved school buildings. This is on top of the work we do to keep vulnerable children and adults safe and cared-for.
Not all councils are in this position. Many have effectively declared themselves bankrupt in recent months, putting essential council services at risk.
We remain committed to living within our means and making a difference in our communities. We are also realistic about the challenge in funding vital services in the future.
Year on year, our costs continue to rise due to a mix of inflation, increasing energy bills and growing demand for our support, especially as our population ages. We now spend £7 in every £10 on social care.
To continue to deliver vital support to our residents, we have increased council tax by 4.99 per cent. For the average home in Staffordshire (band D) this will mean an extra £1.48 per week.
We will continue to spend this money wisely, and we will also continue our calls to government to ensure our roads and services for vulnerable children and adults are properly funded.
Alan White
Leader of Staffordshire County Council
Where our money comes from
Last year's figures
| Income | 2024/25 | 2024/25 |
|---|
| Your Council Tax |
£460.9 m |
32.89% |
| Money for services |
£385.1 m |
27.49% |
| Money for schools |
£344.8 m |
24.61% |
| Business Rates Retention Income |
£128.5 m |
9.17% |
| Government grants |
£81.8 m |
5.84% |
| Total |
£1,401.1 m |
100% |
Making the most of your money
Out of every pound of our funds we will spend...
42p Adult social care
24p Children's services
7p Other education services
6p Highways**
6p Other services
4p Environmental and regulatory services
4p Transport
3p Capital Financing
2p Culture and community
2p Contingency
** Highways council tax figure. More is spent on highways through our capital programme
Last year's spend
| | 2024/25 p in £ |
|---|
| Children's services |
0.25 |
| Other education services |
0.07 |
| Adult social care |
0.43 |
| Environmental and regulatory services |
0.04 |
| Highways |
0.06 |
| Transportation |
0.03 |
| Cultural and related services |
0.02 |
| Other services |
0.05 |
| Capital Financing |
0.03 |
| Contingency |
0.02 |
| Total |
1.00 |
Staffordshire County Council’s Aims
Vision:
An innovative, ambitious and sustainable county, where everyone has the opportunity to prosper, be healthy and happy.
Outcomes:
Everyone in Staffordshire will:
- Have access to more good jobs and share the benefits of economic growth
- Live in thriving and sustainable communities
- Be healthier and independent for longer
Priorities:
- Support Staffordshire’s economy to grow, generating more and better-paid jobs
- Encourage good health and wellbeing, resilience and independence
- Tackle climate change, enhance our environment, and make Staffordshire more sustainable
- Offer every Staffordshire child and young person the best start in life, and the chance to achieve their potential
- Fix more roads, and improve transport and digital connections
How we work:
- Encourage our communities to help themselves and each other
- Lead our workforce to be ambitious, courageous and empowered
- Use digital technology and data to connect, inform and support the people of Staffordshire
- Engage and listen to our communities, partners and business, working together to improve our county
Pledge:
Live within our means and deliver value for money
Economy and Investment
Jobs, businesses and growth
We are supporting Staffordshire’s economy to grow, generating more and better paid jobs by investing in new employment sites, supporting start-ups and matching jobseekers with local businesses.
We’ve also helped to secure over £220 million to invest in town centre regeneration.
More people in jobs
424,000 jobs, up 16% since 2011
Unemployment rate half the regional average.
More businesses
33,000 businesses, up 17% since 2011
Business survival rate well above the regional and national average.
Better wages
Growing faster than national average(2011-23).
Highways
We’re investing around £50 million over three years in maintaining and improving our nearly 4,000 miles of highways, alongside a range of other major projects. Added to this up to an extra £15 million will be invested in road maintenance over the next 12 months.
Our achievements so far
- Following an investment of an extra £8 million, we fixed more than 30,000 potholes over the year.
- To tackle drainage issues, we inspected 18% more gulleys than last year. As a result, around 60,000 of them have been cleared.
- Our crews surface-dressed 587 roads, and patched and prepped another 165, 13% more than the year before.
- We’ve completed 37 road resurfacing schemes, with 6 of these using funding successfully secured from government.
- More crews have been out cutting back hedges, clearing footpaths and tidying local spaces.
- The county council’s ReportIt System has been redeveloped and revamped to make it easier to report issues on our highways.
Communities and Environment
We are investing £18 million to enhance our Countryside Estate and make it accessible for everyone. The three main projects are:
- Cannock Chase Country Park: £10 million is being invested to upgrade visitor facilities.
- Chasewater Innovation Centre: £7 million is going towards redeveloping the centre and surrounding area.
- Staffordshire Way Restoration: £1 million is being used to restore the historic 92-mile Staffordshire Way, from Mow Cop to Kinver, to make it more accessible and enjoyable.
Libraries
This year, we have committed to spending £5 million on the county council’s libraries, and have ensured our 43 libraries remain open. Last year, we invested £1.3 million to refurbish Burton Library, following on from our successful refurbishment of Tamworth Library the year before.
Staffordshire History Centre
£8.7 million has been invested in a brand new Staffordshire History Centre, based in the heart of Stafford.
Our biggest cost challenges
Around £7 in every £10 we spend goes towards keeping vulnerable children and adults safe and cared-for.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Keeping children safe, well and supported is a top priority for the county council. Last year, 18% more children needed help with a special educational need or disability, and that number is growing. We’re working with schools and the NHS on this, but government funding has not increased enough.
What’s more, because of the way the government shares out funding, Staffordshire’s children get less money than in other areas.
Children in Care
Over the last decade, we have done a great deal of work to support families as early as possible and keep them together where safe to do so. We know that children staying with their families have better lives than those in care. This year, we are currently supporting 4,914 children and young people, of which 1,291 are in care.
Adult Social Care
Staffordshire’s population is ageing. Almost all our population growth over the last 10 years is people aged 65 and over.
In 2023/24 we spent around £260 million on adult social care. As the number of older people grows, so does the need for health and care services. This will put a growing pressure on our budget over the next 20 years. We are rising to this challenge by creating communities and houses that enable good health, and making sure that everyone can access a level of support.
Stay connected
We will continue to listen and work with you to make the best use of our resources. If you have suggestions about how we might do things differently, please let us know:
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