4.99% increase on council tax confirmed for Sheffield as City Council budget passed
It means households in the city will be paying at least £1670 a year
Sheffield council tax payers can expect their annual bills to cost between £1,600 and £5,000 from April.
The city council’s budget-setting meeting yesterday (March 4) agreed an increase of 4.99% for 2026/27. This is broken down to 2.99% for city council services and 2% for social care.
On top of this come charges from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue. Sheffielders living in areas covered by Ecclessfield and Bradfield parish councils or Stocksbridge Town Council also have to pay those charges on top.
Councillors approved a revenue budget of £699.102m. They agreed that the mid-range council tax Band D charge would be £2,130.23.
The full increase agreed per council tax band, including the precept charges for mayoral, police and fire services, is:
Band A, £1,670.22;
Band B, £1,948.59;
Band C, £2,226.95;
Band D, £2,505.32;
Band E, £3,062.06
Band F, £3,618.79;
Band G, £4,175.54;
Band H, £5,010.65.
In the area covered by Bradfield Parish Council, the figures are:
Band A, £1,699.57;
Band B, £1,982.83;
Band C, £2,266.08;
Band D, £2,549.34;
Band E, £3,115.86;
Band F, £3,682.38;
Band G, £4,248.91;
Band H, £5,098.69.
Ecclesfield Parish Council area:
Band A, £1,692.45;
Band B, £1,974.53;
Band C, £ 2,256.60
Band D, £2,538.67;
Band E, £3,102.82;
Band F, £3,666.97;
Band G, £4,231.13;
Band H, £5,077.35.
Stocksbridge Town Council area:
Band A, £1,693.69;
Band B, £1,975.97;
Band C, £2,258.25;
Band D, £2,540.53;
Band E, £3,105.09;
Band F, £3,669.65;
Band G, £4,234.22;
Band H, £5,081.07.
Although the council has received a better government financial settlement, it till faces £141.5m of cost pressures on committee budgets.
The budget report said: “These pressures are driven primarily by rising demand for services and continued cost inflation, particularly within social care.”
Adult health and social care alone accounts for £91.2m of financial pressure and other areas include the rising cost of SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) provision, home‑to‑school transport and children’s social care placements.
Finance and performance policy committee chair Coun Zahira Naz proposed the budget.
She said: “These are not simply pressures on a spreadsheet. They represent children who need support, families who need stability and older residents who deserve dignity in care.
“How we respond is not just matter of finance, it is a test of our values as a city.
“For me, those values are personal. I believe in fairness, compassion and a city that judges itself by how it treats its most vulnerable residents.”
She said that Sheffield has a proud record of welcoming migrants and refugees, “who have come here seeking safety, opportunity and a better future for their families.
“They are part of Sheffield’s story, part of our workforce, our communities and our shared future.”
Coun Naz said that Sheffield was “hammered” between 2010 and 2024 by Tory-led austerity. That hit economic growth and services and people found themselves falling behind.
“This year’s local government financial settlement begins to turn the tide.
“It reconnects funding to need. It recognises that cities like Sheffield require fair investment.”
She said that the settlement has increased Sheffield core spending power by 8.2%, bringing almost £30m extra funding.
“This allows us to move away from reactive, short-term budgeting and toward prevention, early intervention and long-term transformation.”
Council leader Coun Tom Hunt seconded the proposal. He said: “We all bore the brunt as the Tories, enabled by the LibDems, slashed funding for the council, for our NHS and the police, but some of our areas were hit harder as austerity deepened existing inequality.
“It is beyond belief that Reform UK have welcomed many of the same Tories who did this damage into their party with open arms.”
Coun Hunt said that things are now changing with more investment in the NHS, schools and police.
“The council now has a multi-year funding settlement which provides certainty so we can invest in services after years of declining budgets.
“We can invest in communities and help people live the life they want.”
He added: “The people of Sheffield are bursting with talent but poverty, poor health, discrimination and a lack of opportunities prevent too many people fulfilling their potential.”
Coun Hunt spoke about council investment in buses, including plans for free bus travel, and expanding the tram network to Stocksbridge, Beighton, Handsworth and the Hallamshire Hospital.
The council is tackling litter, dog fouling and fly-tipping with more enforcement officeers and action on fly-tipping hotspots, cutting school energy bills with solar panels, rebuilding Concord Leisure Centre and Springs Leisure Centre, to be named in honour of city sporting hero Uriah Rennie.
Better children’s playgrounds will be created in five parks, plus a new park at Tinsley Fir Meadows.
More affordable housing includes 300 new homes at Furnace Hill and Neepsend. The council will build 1,000 new homes by 2029 and has a plan to upgrade its existing housing.
Coun Hunt added: “We are also investing £10m a year to help residents with the cost of living and put more money in people’s pockets, including through more face-to-face advice and targeted work to boost household incomes.”
LibDem group leader Coun Martin Smith said that the tax burden is set to increase to a historic high. He said that 16% of young people are not in education, training or employment, adding: “It’s a disgrace.”
He added: “Energy prices are rising, business confidence and public confidence with government have been falling rapidly.”
Turning to council finances, Coun Smith said: “Thankfully we are not burning through reserves but there is still a lot to do.
“The latest local government settlement has given us some breathing space but it won’t last forever. We have to get council spending under control.”
Green Party leader Coun Angela Argenzio said that, with no party in overall control in Sheffield and a committee system in place, “budget meetings in recent years have been much more harmonious than in the bad old days under the cabinet system”.
She said: “That’s the good news but the background is one of continuing austerity and huge levels of inequality.
“A multi-year settlement is welcome but to achieve our balanced budget in Sheffield, we still have to address a budget gap of over £69 million over the next three years. So austerity continues.
“Demand for our services rise, inflationary pressures rise.
“In my portfolio alone, the pressures of an ageing population have a huge impact on services and these are not funded appropriately, preventing us, for example, from paying our providers the real cost of care, especially when their bills are going up all the time.”
Coun Argenzio said that the cost of living crisis continues and government funding to allow councils to give support is welcome but “can only ever be a sticking plaster that fails to address the poverty and inequality that is endemic in our society.”
She argued: “We need to reset how we fund local government, not just carry on with the failed old system we have,” adding: “Fairer funding is not the same as sufficient funding”.
Coun Argenzio called for a 1-2% wealth tax on the assets of multi-millionaires and billionaires that could raise an additional £14.8 billion a year to be spent on services.
All three main parties in the council’s joint administration, plus lone Reform UK councillor John Booker, put in amendments to the budget.
The LibDems stressed the success of home to school transport trainers for helping young people with special educational needs and disabilities to travel independently and cutting transport budgets.
It called for £108,000 to be used to provide free bus travel for Sheffield Young Carers service users.
The Greens argued for more investment in renewable energy and active travel schemes and repeated their call for a city centre workplace parking levy.
Coun Booker’s amendment expressed regret for the high level of council tax increase and “believes the working poor and their families are under attack like never before and are losing the battle.
“These issues and related problems are a direct result of austerity policies perpetrated by the current Labour government in the form of tax rises on working people and previous governments’ mismanagement of the economy”.
It said that outsourced services such as the Streets Ahead highway maintenance and household waste management contracts should be brought back in-house to avoid “exorbitant” charges and called for action on fly-tipping and rough sleepers.
The motion also questioned the success of road traffic management systems such as the Dutch roundabout on West Bar Green.
Only the Labour amendment, which did not suggest any change of direction from the agreed budget, was accepted.