Total council tax bill for Stafford residents approved - full details here
The total council tax for Stafford Borough residents for the next financial year has been approved – but it was not backed by all elected members of the billing authority.
Stafford residents in Band D properties will pay more than £2,200 from April for police, fire, county and borough council services – and borough residents not living in the town will also pay a parish precept.
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Stafford Borough Council collects tax and precepts on behalf of the county authority, town and parish councils, Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service. On Tuesday (February 24) the borough council voted to approve the overall tax bill for 2026/27
Councillor Ralph Cooke, cabinet member for resources, who presented the report at Tuesday’s meeting, said: “You can see the great bulk of tax goes not to the borough council, but county council. And the relatively puny £184.09 (charged to Band D properties by the borough council) becomes £2,269.85 (for Band D properties in Stafford Town) when the other authorities are counted.
“I make no comment on the needs of other authorities. But I point out although we are responsible for collecting the council tax, we only keep about 10% of it.
“I keep saying this because eventually it will get through to all residents we don’t keep all the money we collect. If only we did, we would be living in Nirvana.”
Conservative members of the borough council abstained during the council tax resolution vote on Tuesday however. Conservative group leader Jeremy Pert said: “The reason I can’t support this proposal is we didn’t need to increase council tax in the first place.
“We didn’t need to take more of residents’ money because we have sufficient reserves and there are cumulative underspends in this year’s budget – in any case we’re only building those reserves. It would be really useful if, with local government reorganisation (LGR) round the corner, the cabinet member was going to indicate how we will make sure the £17m of long standing reserves in the council’s budget don’t get swallowed up post-LGR by another authority because that would be a really interesting discussion to have.”
Councillor Cooke responded: “We have a lot of headwinds, a lot of risks coming our way. And it’s our job to try and keep the ship on an even keel.
“We did of course freeze car parking charges for the year and we also froze brown bin charges, so we have given something back.”
How much Stafford Borough residents in Band D properties will pay in council tax in 2026/27
Stafford Borough Council: £184.09 (2.99% increase)
Staffordshire County Council: £1,686.42 (3.99% increase)
Staffordshire Police: £302.57 (5.22% increase)
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service: £96.77 (5.22% increase)
Residents living in Stafford Town do not pay an additional precept to a town or parish council, as it is an “unparished” area. However, residents living in Stone Town or a village will pay a precept to that town or parish council.
Residents living in a Band A, B or C property will pay less than the Band D bill. But residents living in a property with a higher band than D will pay more than the Band D bill.
