Your Council Tax 2019-20
Dear Resident,
Each year your council tax funds essential and important work to help improve lives and keep the most vulnerable people in our communities safe.
In the past, Government funded most of our costs. Not anymore. In fact, the money you pay accounts for 60 per cent of funding for day-to-day services, so we really do need to continue to ensure every penny counts.
In 2019, it will go a long way towards fixing more potholes, keeping libraries open, creating better jobs and promoting healthier lives.
It will also help protect increasing numbers of adults and children who now need our care. Over the last decade our care bill has soared by more than £100 million. To ensure we can continue to meet costs, it is vital that we also promote healthy choices and lifestyles, attract investment, grow our economy, create more skilled jobs and drive up housing development.
This also means investing in new schools, increasing take-up of superfast broadband, promoting digital options, boosting skills and education, investing in our huge road network.
To achieve all of this and continue to keep the most vulnerable safe, we need to raise council tax by 2.95 per cent. This is less than 10p more per day if you live in a Band D property and will remain as one of the lowest county council taxes in the country.
While councils can no longer fund all the services they once did, we are working together with partners, businesses and residents to look for alternative, local solutions where possible. Our 20 community-run libraries are a fantastic example of this.
As a county council, we are hugely ambitious for Staffordshire and committed to enabling the people who live and work here to improve their lives.
Philip Atkins OBE
Leader of Staffordshire County Council
Out of every pound of our funds we will spend...
40p Care for the elderly and adults and children with disabilities
23p Caring for vulnerable children
5p Highways
3p Transport
11p Administration
7p Cost of loans to build schools and roads
5p Waste management and trading standards
3p Education services other than schools
1p Contingency
1p Libraries, museums, and galleries
1p Additional money for care and communities
Where our money comes from
Our total income is £1096.1m. This money comes from five sources, including your council tax. Around a third is handed directly to schools. We cannot influence how this money is spent. Of the remaining money a large portion can only be used for specific services such as public health.
We have £508.7m available for day-to-day services for Staffordshire people over the coming year.
Money for services £508.7m
This funding is available for day-to-day services.
Your council tax: £355.2m
Business rates: £119.0m
Other income: £34.5m
Ring-fenced income £234.4m
Public health and waste management: £234.4m
Not for council use £353.0m
Dedicated schools grant: £353.0m
Grand total: £1,096.1m
Living in Staffordshire
Supporting the Staffordshire family
Here are just some of the ways our people are helping your people...
We are supporting 1,125 vulnerable children in our care.
- Over the last two years an extra £10 million has been invested in our roads and tackling potholes.
- A growing ageing population means we now need to fund around 30 million hours of care each year.
- We have helped to create and safeguard 7,000 jobs, and we are well on the way to creating 27,000 jobs by 2024.
We are proactively tackling the growing demand for school places. In 2018, the John Taylor Free School near Burton, opened its doors - the first brand new secondary school in Staffordshire for 25 years.
- Latest figures show more than 7.7 million hours a year of pre-school care are being claimed by nearly 6,800 children in Staffordshire.
- Our staff and band of volunteers have helped ensure the doors on our 43 libraries have remained open.
- Our amazing army of 370 foster carers are already giving 474 local children a safe and happy home, and we are always working hard to recruit more carers.
Our Superfast Staffordshire partnership has invested £32 million to ensure that 96% of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent premises can access broadband speeds of over 24mbps.
- Each year our fleet of 42 gritters treat a gritting network of around 2,500km.
- At the beginning of the current academic year, Staffordshire was the sixth highest local authority area for reducing the number of 16 and 17-year-olds not in employment, education or training.
Four-storey £15.4million Castle House opened in the heart of Newcastle, brining multiple services under one roof - making life easier for users and saving taxpayers' money.
- Planning permission has now been granted for the £300m expansion of i54 South Staffordshire, with the potential to create 1,700 jobs.
- We have grand designs. highways work to support the new £160million McArthurGlen Designer Outlet near Cannock is now underway. Doors open in 2020.
Stay connected
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