Council tax hike rubber-stamped as Cheshire East budget voted through
The budget was narrowly voted through
Delamere House(Image: LDRS)
Cheshire East Council has approved a 4.99 per cent hike in council tax as part of a budget aiming to ‘put council finances on a sustainable footing in the long term’. The budget was voted through by 40 to 38, with three councillors abstaining at Wednesday's meeting of the full council and will see the total annual bill for a band D property go up to an average £2,454 from April.
The Labour/Independent run council has only been able to balance its books after being granted exceptional financial support (EFS) of £35 million from the government. EFS enables councils to fund some day-to-day spending as longer term capital spending, which is usually funded through borrowing or selling assets.
Cheshire East is looking at using £24.995 million EFS to balance the shortfall for 2026/27. Cllr Dawn Clark (Lab), chair of the finance sub-committee, told yesterday’s meeting the budget before them was a combination of income, use of resources, robust saving plans, the proposed use of exceptional financial support and an increase in council tax of 4.99 per cent.
“I consider the MTFS (medium term financial strategy) to be robust. We aim to eliminate reliance on exceptional financial support,” said the Crewe councillor. “Our budget will deliver the best value services for our residents. We will not over promise, but continue to monitor.”
Deputy council leader Michael Gorman (Wilmslow, Ind) told the meeting: “Putting forward this budget, we set out a package of plans to protect essential services and work towards putting council finances on a sustainable footing in the long term.” He said the plan included a range of savings and income growth proposals across services based on business cases.
“An example of that is reducing employer contributions to the pension fund from 23.7 per cent to 18 per cent with a saving of around a million pounds a year,” he said. The deputy leader said he realised the increase in council tax would have an impact on household budgets but there was support for those on the lowest incomes.
He added: “We are the lowest council tax of our neighbours, for instance, in the unitary councils of Cheshire West and Cheshire and Warrington.” The Conservative’s financial spokesperson, Cllr Chris O’Leary (Sutton), said the council had had to rely on EFS for the past three years to balance its books.
“The £25 million budget gap (for the 2026/27 financial year) is almost entirely explained by the failure of the administration’s transformation programme and the cost of dealing with the administration’s inadequate rating in children’s services,” he said.
The Conservatives put forward an alternative budget yesterday, which included increasing the vacancy rate at the council from the proposed five per cent to 10 per cent, reducing the members’ allowances budget and scrapping ward members’ budgets for local highways improvements a year early. This was rejected with former deputy leader Craig Browne (Alderley Edge, Ind) criticising it as ‘a collection of statements for noting, rather than a genuine attempt at an alternative budget’.
Former council leader Sam Corcoran (Sandbach, Lab) branded it ‘a ragtag list’. Conservative group deputy leader Liz Wardlaw (Odd Rode) said the amendment was made in good faith. “It’s a positive contribution to the financial predicament of this council,” she said. “Savings promised by the administration have failed to be achieved year on year. Savings made through transformation have been negligible to this point. Borrowing continues at high interest rates. All efforts to improve the situation for our residents and to reduce the financial burden on them should be welcomed.”