Rotherham residents face £73 annual council tax rise after budget approved
Rotherham Council has approved its budget for next year
Rotherham councillors have approved a 3.95 per cent council tax rise from April as part of the authority’s budget for the coming financial year.
The increase, agreed at a meeting of full council on March 4, will see the annual bill for a Band D household rise by £73.89, taking it to £1,944.52 from April.
Council leaders said the increase was needed to help meet rising costs, particularly in social care. The authority expects to spend around £13.4m more on adult and children’s care services this year, driven by rising demand and increasingly complex needs.
While government funding for Rotherham is set to increase by around £13.2m in 2026/27 following changes to the national funding formula, officers say much of this additional money will be absorbed by those pressures.
Council leader Chris Read said the budget would ‘improve the quality of life of Rotherham residents over the coming year’.
He added that while councils had faced years of austerity under previous Conservative governments, increased funding from the current Labour government meant Rotherham was now able to present a balanced budget for the next three years while continuing to invest in regeneration and services.
“Some of you will remember those long years when we gathered together to set a budget with the heavy burden knowing that our funding was not keeping pace with the demands on it.
“So many years we faced a £20 million budget gap, as the Conservatives in Westminster found new, creative ways to make local councils bear the brunt of austerity, and each year, we did the best that we could to protect the most vulnerable and hold on to our core services.
“But buildings closed, jobs were lost, and slowly but surely, services retreated. Funding for local councils under the Tories became so bleak that even now, 18 months after they left office, nearly one in four councils with social care responsibilities in England need exceptional financial support in order to balance their books.”
The budget includes funding for business support officers and town centre events across the borough, including in Rotherham, Swinton, Wath, Maltby and Dinnington, as well as investment in parks, leisure facilities and highways.
Councillors also highlighted measures aimed at easing everyday costs for residents, including a new offer of half-price swimming for people aged 65 and over.
Conservative councillor Timothy Baum-Dixon said he could not support the budget, arguing it did not represent value for money for taxpayers and that the council should focus on leaving more money in residents’ pockets during the cost of living crisis.
“There is a fundamental question that we get asked, are we using the taxpayers money wisely? Can we knock on those doors and say that this money is being used wisely? I am really sorry but I just think with this budget it is not.
“What we tried to do is focus the money on the people who really needed it. We should get involved when we need to, but actually when we don’t, should step away”.
Councillor Simon Ball, Conservative, accused Labour’s budget of ‘hypocracy,’ adding: “Sir Kier Starmer was so desperate for votes he stood before the nation with all the conviction he could muster what did he say? Not a penny more. Not one penny. That was a solemn pledge of working families struggling.
“Yet here we are, barely into their term, and this budget slaps yet another nearly four per cent rise on households in Rotherham.
“It is a betrayal of the very principles they claim to hold. They promise to protect working people from higher taxes, but instead put up your taxes year after year.
“Labour’s budget breaks promises, burdens families and misplaces priorities.”
However, Labour Councillor Joanna Baker Rogers defended the budget, telling the meeting: “It does what we’re supposed to do as a council. It improves the quality of life of people in our town. I firmly believe that it doesn’t matter how old you are, how young you are, where you live in our town, what your individual needs are, there’s something in this budget that’s going to make your life that little bit better.”
Cllr Chris Read added: “When you’ve been there, and know what it’s like to not have the confidence to that that’s your place in the world to ask for it, to not have the status whatever it might be…that is the point about making sure the state fills those gaps, that we have a responsibility to fill those gaps.”
Liberal Democrat councillors proposed an alternative budget which they said would reduce the council tax increase by cutting funding for town centre events and removing additional council funding for the selective licensing scheme.
Councillor Adam Carter, leader of the Liberal Democrats told the meeting: “I’m proud to say that yet again, we’re bringing forward the lowest council tax proposal of all the proposals on the table here today.
“With many Reform, Labour and Conservative councils around the country failing their promises to residents to cut or minimise tax rises, it gives me great pleasure to propose this inflation busting budget.
“When this council keeps failing to empty bins properly or on time, we shouldn’t be focusing on more events in the town centre.”
Conservative councillors also put forward an amendment which would reduce the council tax increase to three per cent, redirect reserve funding towards regeneration and road repairs, and cut spending on schemes including subsidised swimming for over-65s and additional council business support roles.
Councillor Zachary Collingham, leader of the Conservative group told the meeting: “Residents face nearly a four per cent rise under the Labour budget, at a time when families are still struggling with an unabaiting cost of living crisis, with sluggish economic growth and with the Labour government’s war on everyone from pensioners to shopkeepers.
“It’s vital we don’t add a penny more to that burden. Our amendment therefor reduces the proposed increase to three percent, on the basis that the council hsould not take any more than it needs. A lower increase will not solve everyone’s challenges……but it’s cumilative.”
Both were rejected by the council’s Labour majority.
The budget passed following a vote at full council, with the Labour majority supporting the proposals. Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Reform councillors voted against, along with some independent councillors.