Council tax in Herefordshire to increase by 4.99%

Herefordshire’s council tax increase of 4.99 per cent from April, the maximum permitted, has been confirmed.

This increases the typical band D charge to £1,969.36, an increase of £7.80 per month.

Cabinet member for finance Coun Pete Stoddart told fellow councillors today (February 7) that the council expects to spend £231.5 million in 2025/26, 9 per cent up on the current year.

Of this, £146.5 million, or 63 per cent, will come from council tax payers, business rates will bring in £47.5 million, with various grants making up the rest, he said.

But he warned that the council faces “unfunded pressures” totalling a further £27 million in the year ahead, including additional demand on its services, chiefly adult social care, of £13 million, and inflationary pressure of £10.5 million.

In addition, £2 million more is forecast to go on higher pay, with a further £1.5 million from the recent increase in employers’ national insurance contributions “having a direct impact on the council’s pay bill”, Coun Stoddart explained.

Liberal Democrat leader Coun Terry James backed the plan, pointing out the government has cut nearly £7 million from the Rural Services Grant it previously gave Herefordshire to offset the costs of its rural nature.

“But we are in a better position than adjoining councils,” he said.

Greens leader Coun Diana Toynbee said the new Labour government “are as big fans of austerity as the previous government, and the people of Herefordshire are paying the price”.

Green MP for North Herefordshire Ellie Chowns earlier told Parliament that central funding to the county “is well below what is needed to provide the services that residents need and deserve”.

Independents for Herefordshire leader Coun Liz Harvey said rises in interest rates over past three years “will have provided [the council with] over £7 million unbudgeted funding” – but this “has been tucked away in the administration’s back pocket”.

Council leader Jonathan Lester the tax rise was “unavoidable” but added: “We are able to fund further investment in roads, maintaining the freeze on parking charges, increase flood resilience, and progress with the project to deliver the Western Bypass, whilst balancing the budget.”

The final setting of council tax, including “precepts” for local parishes and for police and fire services, will be confirmed next month.