Shropshire council to increase council tax beyond five-percent
The council can raise their share by a maximum 9%.
Shropshire becomes one of seven council to be given special permission to increase their council tax beyond the core 5%, to ease a "challenging financial position".
It is part of a three-year settlement for local authorities which the Government has finalised, making around £78 billion available to town halls throughout England.
Local government minister Alison McGovern has said the deal was designed around "reconnecting funding with need".
But Steven Broadbent, the County Councils Network (CCN) finance spokesman, warned the next three years "will be very challenging" for the organisation's members.
Most councils can raise their share of a tax bill by up to 5% - and must ask for residents' permission in a referendum before hiking it further, but the special permission allows Shropshire to increase it by a further 4% to 9%.
"Our local government finance reforms get money to where it is needed, but we recognise that some councils remain in a challenging financial position as they continue to deal with the legacy of the previous system," Ms McGovern said in her written statement.
She later added: "These additional flexibilities are a limit, not a target.
"Decisions on council tax levels are for local authorities."
The minister also said: "We are reconnecting funding with need.
"Only around a third of councils were given the funding to broadly match their assessed need before our reforms.
"By the end of the multi-year settlement, that will be nine in 10 councils.
"As a result of these changes, the most deprived places will receive 45% more funding per head than the least deprived in 2028/29."
The package will include a £440 million uplift to the recovery grant, "aimed at the councils most impacted by cuts during austerity", bringing its total to £2.6 billion.
It will also include £272 million additional allocations within the homelessness, rough sleeping and domestic abuse grant, bringing its total to £2.7 billion.
Ms McGovern said: "We promised to reconnect funding to deprivation and this final settlement delivers on that promise.
"With more new funding, we're giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead and transform services.
"Our purpose is to support families, tackle homelessness before it happens, and finally giving communities worst affected by historic cuts their fair share."
Shropshire Council declared a financial emergency in September to avoid a section 114 notice being issued, which would effectively mean the council declaring itself bankrupt.
Projections at one stage indicated that the authority would have an overspend of around £50 million by the end of this financial year (March 2026).
The council is facing an estimated budget gap of £130 million for 2026/27, which is why it has applied for exceptional financial support (EFS) from the Government for that figure.