Sandwell set for council tax rise and bin collection changes as budget approved

The £365m budget for Sandwell Council for the 2025/6 year includes a move to fortnightly bin collections – with general and recycled waste collected on alternate weeks – as well as a near five per cent rise in council tax and increases to rent and a host of fees and charges for services.

The council outlined a near £20m gap in its budget this year saying cuts and ‘efficiency savings’ needed to be made to legally set a balanced budget.

The budget by the Labour-run authority includes a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax – the highest rise the council can impost without having to hold a referendum – that includes two per cent ring-fenced to help pay for adult social care.

The rise means households in band A and band B – which make up 75 per cent of the borough – will pay an extra £58 and £68 respectively for council services.

The average band D household will pay nearly £87 more this year.

The budget was approved at a full council meeting in Oldbury last Tuesday (February 25).

Council leader Kerrie Carmichael said the budget would help the council on its “journey to become outstanding” and Councillor Paul Moore, cabinet member for finance, said the authority was “not facing extreme financial situations like other councils” and that was “testatment to careful decision making and sensible financial management over many years.”

Sandwell Council said it plans to save £2.6million this year by moving from weekly to fortnightly collections where household waste and recycling are collected in alternate weeks.

As many as 35 jobs could be lost as part of the council’s money-saving plans to move to fortnightly bin collections.

The local authority said it would be saving just over £1m in staff costs from the job losses, with the remainder of the money saved by taking 13 bin lorries off the road.

Conservative councillor Les Trumpeter acknowledged there were “tough choices to make” for the Labour-run authority but said the Tories would not be supporting the proposed changes to bin collections- though would also not be tabling any amendments or an alternative budget.

The council’s few remaining Conservative opposition councillors abstained from voting on the budget over the switch to fortnightly collections – a decision criticised by the Labour council’s cabinet member for finance Councillor Paul Moore who said he was “embarassed” by the Tories' lack of engagement with the budget. He said they were “absolving themselves of responsibility.”

“We haven’t had anything,” he said at the full council meeting. “We’ve got no plan, no amendment.

“It’s okay to say we dont agree with the bin collection changes... but you don’t have any plan or alternative to what you might do.

“It might be a reflection of why you have gone from 12 councillors down to five and only three of you have bothered to turn up tonight. And there’s only one Conservative who has registered more than 50 per cent attendance this year.

“You need to get your act together. I will go and lobby the Government but for 14 years we have had nothing but misery and policy decisions to cut money to local government."

Independent councillor Richard Jeffcoat blamed 14 years of austerity and “deliberate” cuts under the last Conservative government for the crisis in local government funding but said the new Labour government had failed to “heal the effects of the ideological poison".

He said that, coupled with “savage” rises in costs, was “nothing short of a betrayal.”

Fees and charges for a host of council services already increased in January including the cost of weddings and funerals in Sandwell.

Sandwell Council hiked a host of fees and charges including burials, cremations and weddings by much as 10 per cent and increased the price of collecting garden waste by £5 to £40.

The average household will also be expected to pay an extra £133 a year for a council house in Sandwell under plans that will see social housing rent increase by 2.7 per cent from April.

Households will pay between nearly £120 and £150 more a year from April. This year’s increase follows a five per cent rise in rent last year.

The rent for a council flat would increase by £127, high-rise and low-rise flats by £113 and £119 respectively and the average rent for a council house would rise by £146.

Another rent rise in Sandwell follows average increases of between £300 and £400 by the Labour-led authority in 2023.

Earlier this year, the Black Country local authority revealed it was looking to give up Hadley Stadium in Smethwick and close the town’s Harry Mitchell Leisure Centre as part of plans to save more than £500,000.

The council also plans to make changes with “significantly lower costs” to Tipton Sports Academy under the move.