Funding not helping City Council

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is still facing a 'hard road' despite securing £9.14 million of transformation funding, councillors have been told.

The council was allocated the funding by government to make improvements to children's and adults' social care, cut overspends and reduce the authority's reliance on emergency bailouts.

But strategy and resources scrutiny committee members were told that the council's financial situation remains 'bleak' and that it will take years for the transformation work to turn things around.

The financial performance report for the first quarter of 2026/27 shows the authority is predicting a £6.7 million overspend for the year, mostly due to pressures in children's and adult's services.

Nick Edmonds, corporate director for resources, told the committee that the council faced long-standing 'structural' problems such as a low tax base and high levels of deprivation.