Message regarding police and fire costs for 2025

I would personally like to invite you to take part in a consultation to provide feedback on how much you would be prepared to pay for Policing and Fire & Rescue services in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

I am responsible for setting the budget for Staffordshire Police, and Staffordshire Fire & Rescue Service, including the amount of council tax used for both services.

For 2025/26, I am asking residents of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to share their views on the following options, based on a Band D property currently paying £273.57 each year for Police services and £86.77 each year for Fire services.

Police:

No increase in precept
An extra £7 per year (58p extra a month) This is a 2.56% increase
An extra £14 per year (£1.16 extra a month) This is a 5.12% increase

Fire:

No increase in precept
An extra £2.50 per year (21p extra a month) This is a 2.9% increase
An extra £5 per year (42p extra a month) This is a 5.8% increase

Since 2021 I have always tried to keep your council tax precept low, and I will only ask for more if I believe it is necessary to maintain or improve the services.

I want to continue to invest in people and technology to further improve our services, to protect our communities and keep bringing crime and ASB down, but government grants, this coming year, will not fully cover increases in pay, national insurance and inflation.

Even with the maximum precept increases of £14 for Police and £5 for Fire & Rescue per year for a Band D property, maintaining the staff and service levels required to address national, regional and community priorities will be extremely challenging.

What level of additional council tax contributions would you support to help our Police and Fire & Rescue services? I would welcome your thoughts on these options to help inform my decisions.

The council tax consultation runs until 12 January. Have your say here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/precept2526