Council Plan 2023 to 2026

Elected by you

We are a unitary authority elected to serve the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. We are the largest of the five local unitary Councils that make up the Tees Valley region. We have 26 wards, represented by 56 councillors. Following the May 2019 local elections, no political party has overall control of the Council. We have a Leader and Cabinet style administration. That means the Council appoints the Leader, and the Leader appoints the Cabinet.

Planning our financial future

Our medium-term financial planning approach has allowed us to continually balance our budget through delivering savings and efficiencies but also to plan ahead and deliver invest-to-save schemes and innovative changes to service delivery models.

The current financial climate is extremely challenging and there will be a need to deliver budget savings in the future. Our approach will allow time to embark on a series of reviews, which will not only deliver savings but also improve outcomes for our residents.

Our people, our services, our commitment

Our teams continue to rise to the many challenges we face, continuing to deliver high quality, value for money services, and by working with key partners in the public, business and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

Our adult and children's social care services, support teams and education support teams work all year round to protect our residents from abuse and exploitation, working alongside the teams in public health, community safety, licensing, trading standards, welfare support, housing, catering, registrars, bereavement service, community engagement and environmental health work to make sure that the Borough is a place where people are healthy, safe and protected from harm.

Our refuse and recycling, street cleaning, groundworks, parks and maintenance teams all work alongside the teams in heritage, libraries, museums, events and countryside and green space to make sure that the Borough is clean, vibrant and attractive. The planning, building control and housing teams make sure that the Borough has great places to live.

Our business support, inward investment, learning and skills and town centre development teams are working hard to support businesses in the Borough to ensure we have a thriving economy where everyone has opportunities to succeed. Our transport teams continue to manage and improve our highways networks to ensure that residents and businesses can move freely around the Borough.

And all of our teams, whether on the front line or working in the vital support functions that are needed to make it all happen, are ambitious, effective and proud to serve.

We're proud to deliver all of these services, however when we look at the situation in the Borough in 2023/24 and weigh up all of the challenges and opportunities that we face right now, we have identified the following key priorities for the coming year.