Introduction

Trafford Council has now published its proposed Budget for 2025/26. 

This page provides further details on the contents of the Budget and how we are continuing to deliver for Trafford residents. 

Watch out for further updates across our social media channels as we approach our Budget meeting on 3rd March. 

The challenge

Trafford is the lowest funded Metropolitan area in England. 

Since 2010, we have had to make more than £300m in savings – all while the cost of delivering our services has continued to rise. For example, the cost of delivering children’s services has risen by 90% since 2018. 

14 years of Conservative chaos in Westminster has left the country’s finances decimated and public services broken. While Labour are making positive first steps – it will take time to fix the mess they inherited. 

In the meantime, we must set a responsible Budget – and only Trafford Labour have a plan for this. Opposition parties can’t show how they would maintain vital services whilst protecting our finances.

Delivering on the priorities of Trafford Residents

This Budget includes tough decisions – including on council tax. This is not something we take lightly.

In return, residents can expect a council which is relentlessly focused on delivering the services they rely on – including the following commitments:

• Supporting our most vulnerable adults: including providing £3.8m in funding grants for vital disability adaptions to homes – helping keep people in their own homes 

• Setting up our young people for life: with £11.7m allocated to Education and Early Years – helping to deliver Family Hubs across Trafford, along with £3m to support additional school places, £5.3m to boost SEND provision and £3.4m for school maintenance.

• Keeping Trafford moving: investing £6.4m into highways maintenance and pothole repairs, continuing to support walking, wheeling and cycling following successful bids for external funding and a £200k investment into EV charging points. 

• A clean and green Trafford: maintaining regular bin collections, with £16.44m allocated to recycling and waste

• Delivering housing, regeneration and growth: using our investment strategy to secure new affordable homes and continuing to drive forward improvements to town centres 

• Protecting and promoting leisure, culture and arts: keeping our libraries open and resourced, as well as supporting capital investments of over £9m into leisure facilities and £2.5m in parks and green spaces. 

Despite shouting from the sidelines, neither the Trafford Conservatives or Trafford Lib Dems have a plan.  They have said they oppose an increase to council tax, yet refuse to identify the realistic savings in the council’s budget. They would put your vital services at risk. 

Council Tax – Trafford & GM

Following this Budget, Trafford will still have the second lowest Council Tax in Greater Manchester – with residents of Band D properties paying around £60 less per year than neighbours in Manchester and over £350 less than they would in Stockport. 

A full breakdown of Council Tax across Greater Manchester is provided in the image below.

How your Trafford Pound is spent (and where its not)

Each pound of Council Tax is spent in the following way:

• 34p in every pound contributes to Adult Social Services and public health –  including meeting our legal duty to protect our most vulnerable residents 
• 26p is spent on education and early years – ensuring our young people get the best start in life and supports Trafford’s looked after children
• This leaves just 40p in every pound to deliver a host of important services – maintaing our roads, collecting your bins regularly, keeping your libraries, cultural hubs and leisure facilities open.

A full breakdown of Your Trafford Pound is provided in the image below. 

Wider investments using external funding

In addition to Council Tax, we also receive grants from central government and wider external bodies.

This funding is often ring-fenced to a specific service or project, meaning it cannot be used to plug other gaps in other areas. 

Most of the funding for things like cycling schemes and regeneration projects is provided in this way and come with strict limitations on how it can be spent. 

This funding is often acquired as a result of an intensive bidding process, where areas compete to demonstrate what they can deliver for their places. Trafford have a been very successful at this and we are proud of the improvements we’ve been able to deliver over recent years – including significant investments in our town centres and leisure facilities

Green bin collections – the facts 

An additional fee for the collection of green bins was first introduced by Trafford Conservatives and came into effect in 2018.

Upon taking office in 2019, Trafford Labour scrapped the fee and have maintained green bin collections for 5 years at no additional charge.

However, we have had to reconsider this position following the dramatic increases in our costs over recent years.

Around 70% of English Council’s operate in a similar way and we are committed to keeping the cost of this as low as possible –  with an annual fee of £45 being on the lower end of fees applied across the country (and £14 cheaper than the £59 proposed in Stockport).

Residents who do not have a garden or wish to dispose of their own garden waste can choose not to opt in and will not be charged. Their food waste bin will still be collected as normal.