Council approves balanced annual budget for residents

We are proud to announce we can put additional money aside for the future thanks to the government’s changes to the Local Authorities, Fair Funding Review.

The council’s balanced its finances to deliver essential services to residents and continues with its ambitions and priorities for Stevenage.

Councillor Richard Henry, Leader of Stevenage Borough Council said:

“Our budget has been built around our desire to deliver great services and to improve the town for current and future generations. Our ambitious Making Stevenage Even Better Corporate Plan programme is continuing to realise investment and improvements across the town.

“Next month, a new, separate, weekly food waste collection service will launch across Stevenage. Flats that currently have shared communal bins for refuse and recycling will receive a shared wheely bin for food waste. All flats will receive an individual kitchen caddy.

“We are investing in our assets and people. We are repairing and refreshing our town and homes and continuing to make a difference with our green credentials. We have planted 4,500 trees and our new woods are helping our Climate Change initiative. Our town will have more green improvements including investment in pruning more hedgerows to create more visually pleasing environments across the neighbourhoods of Stevenage.

“The budget includes spending £210,000 on skills and training including getting adults trained and back into work. This includes an adult learning and career change pilot to expand support for adults who are out of work or looking to change career and supporting our Stevenage Works initiative which provides training for 16-18 year olds who are young people not in education, employment, or training (NEETs).

“This year we celebrate our town’s 80^th anniversary and we are a town whose ‘heart lies in its people.’ We have a one off £50,000 budget to mark this special occasion with residents.

“I would like to express a huge thank you to all council staff who carried out this fantastic work. Our members and officers have worked hard together to strive to ensure that we continue to have sufficient money to run our services.”

Council Tax paid to Stevenage Borough Council for a Band D property will go up by £7.37 (2.99%) per year or just 14pence per week. Each Band D household will pay Stevenage Borough Council £253.78 for 2026/27 or £4.88 per week to fund services from Stevenage Borough Council.

We are also supporting our residents through additional Discretionary Housing Payments and Council Tax Hardship Fund totalling £189,000. This support will assist people experiencing severe financial hardship or facing exceptional circumstances to keep residents in their homes.

Hertfordshire County Council will see an increase of 4.99%, and for the Police and Crime Commissioner, 5.6% for their share of the council tax. This means a Band C Council Tax in Stevenage for 2026/27 will be £2126.20 or £177.18 per month which represents an overall increase of 4.84%. Although we collect Council Tax from our residents, we only keep just 10% of that total sum. The Police and Crime Commissioner and Hertfordshire County Council receiving £248.89 and £1,651.73, respectively.