Stoke-on-Trent’s draft budget includes extra money for people’s priorities as part of a package aimed at further stabilising finances and transforming services.
The city council will continue to face significant budget pressure in 2026-27 due to a range of factors including the rising cost of social care and the legacy of over a decade of austerity cuts which reduced its spending power by around 25 per cent.
But the proposed budget protects front-line services as well as key projects that help residents.
That includes the Money MOT service, which has helped around 8,000 people access £4.2 million in benefits they were owed, but not claiming.
The council has also been awarded £33 million additional funding by Government to improve bus services over the next four years. This will build on the money already spent transforming the city’s public transport system and deliver upgrades including further bus shelter upgrades and tap-on, tap-off ticketing.
A smart investment philosophy, aimed squarely at targeting limited resources on what matters to residents, means extra money will be available to crackdown further on fly tipping and other environmental crimes, double the number of empty homes brought back into use as affordable housing, and fund extra flood prevention work – including gulley cleaning.
The council will continue to prioritise improving the city’s road network, having repaired around 22,000 potholes and other defects since April 2024 – and increase of 80 per cent on the previous year in the first 12 months alone.
At the same time, the council is pushing forward with a series of major transformation projects which aim at providing a better service, at lower cost.
These include the new Families First Partnership programme, which will bring together everything from early advice to specialist services so children can grow up safe, well and thriving – whatever their family’s situation.
The Strengthening Communities partnership will see the council continue to work with voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sections to design and deliver solutions to the issues which make like more challenging in some parts of the city. It is part of a wider “communities first” strategy that includes helping oversee how £40 million of Pride in Place funding, to be split between Meir North and Bentilee & Ubberley, is spent.
Through the capital programme, there will be a continued focus on heritage protection and reuse, with essential works to safeguard the Wedgwood Institute and Chatterley Whitfield, continued regeneration of the Spode site, repair works to some of our historic markets and muscular enforcement against private owners who are not looking after historic buildings.
The council has also begun a root-and-branch digital transformation programme aimed at reshaping both how services are delivered to residents and how the council works. It is built around a vision of faster, smarter, and more connected services, providing customers with a simple personalised access point.
There will be a major focus on reducing internal costs, including the use of agency and interim staff.
The measures in the budget would see the total number of occupied full-time equivalent posts across the council reduced by 13.9 during the next financial year. As always, the council will seek to avoid or minimise redundancies by, for example, creating alternative posts, advertising vacant posts internally wherever appropriate, minimising the use of agency staff and consultants, and deleting further vacant posts where available.
The budget includes a proposed council tax increase of 4.99%. This is a typical figure across the country – last year, 112 out of 132 unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs increased their council tax by 4.99% or more [1].
Stoke-on-Trent currently has the fifth lowest average council tax bill in the country. It has – and will continue to have - by far the lowest council tax in Staffordshire. Currently the average bill per dwelling in the city stands at £1,227 a year compared to a national average of £1,770 [2].
The budget will also request a further £10.5 million from government in exceptional financial support (EFS). This is a reduction from the £16.8 million agreed for 2025/26, as the council continues the process of reducing costs and stabilising finances.
This year’s budget is the first following the government’s implementation of the Fair Funding Review (FFR). It is the first substantial change in more than a decade to the national formula used to distribute funding between councils. It also provides councils with minimum funding sums for the next three years – allowing them to plan with greater certainty.
The new system is intended to use more up-to-date data on relative need and local resources, and link funding more closely to deprivation levels.
While the council has welcomed that principle, the changes are complex and, overall, the city council’s core spending power – the amount available to fund all services, when both government grants and local funding like council tax are taken into account – will increase by only 5.4% next year (compared to a national average of 5.7%), and 14.4% over the next three years (compared to a national average of 15.1%).
Jane Ashworth, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “We listen to what people tell us is important – which is why we are providing more money to tackle fly-tipping, gulley cleaning and the blight of empty homes.
“We are also protecting the people of this city who need us the most. Our Money MOT service has been a lifeline for thousands of families and while UKSPF funding may be ending, the need had not gone away.
“At the same time, despite this government linking funding more closely to deprivation, the financial pressure on this council remains significant after a decade of austerity cuts.
“That’s why we are transforming the way we deliver services, including using AI and other technology to achieve better results and more efficient, effective ways of working.
“Our community first approach, and major initiatives like Families First Partnership, will put the emphasis firmly on addressing the root causes of deprivation, family breakdown and low achievement. It will mean the people we serve don’t just have a stake in decisions that affect them and the services they use, but are genuinely involved in shaping them.
“Our Centenary year has showcased Stoke-on-Trent to the nation and the world – our innovation, our passion and our pride. Those are the same qualities that will drive our transformation as we continue to build a better city for everyone.”
Public consultation on the draft budget will run until 9 February. Residents can have their say by visiting stoke.gov.uk/budget2026. They can also write to Budget 2026, c/o Executive Assistant to the Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer), Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke ST4 1HH.
The proposals will be discussed at scrutiny meetings and the council’s ruling cabinet before being presented to full council for approval on February 26.
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