EXTRA cash for town centres and increasing numbers of children in care will see a 3.9 per cent tax rise lined up in Stockton. 

Council leaders are expected to back the hike next Thursday – which will mean an extra £61.96 on bills for Band D homes and an extra £41.31 in Band A properties. 

Budget papers show a new £3m pot has been set aside by the council to invest in town centres.

Meanwhile, children services are to get an extra £1.45m to cope with pressures from a record number of looked after youngsters in the borough.

Funding cuts have left Stockton Council £73m worse off than it was a decade ago. But it has managed to save £45m since 2010. 

Council leader Cllr Bob Cook said the government’s financial settlement this year was better than it had been. But he warned there was still uncertainty about funding after 2021. The Labour leader added: “It’s a problem which all councils have. It’s hard to plan ahead when we don’t know what’s in front of us.”

The new £3m fund for towns comes after the council agreed to borrow £30m in 2018 to buy up ailing high street sites. Much of the fund has been used to buy areas of Stockton town centre.

But Cllr Cook said this new fund would be used on other town centre investments which did not fit the rules set down for the £30m pot.

When it came to the extra money for children’s services, the leader added the council had to spend it to prevent youngsters being put at risk.

One of the biggest areas of pressure facing the council is social care. The government announced an extra £1.5bn for social care last year. But £500m of this is being raised through council tax bills.

This means the Stockton tax rise includes a two per cent social care levy – something which the council says it has “reluctantly” implemented since 2016. 

Cllr Cook believed social care funding was something which needed sorting out nationally.

He added: “Governments in the past have never really tackled the issue of elderly care.

“We are all living longer so there is a need for more social care money.”

The council rise will be added to a separate 3.99 per cent rise in the Cleveland Police precept which equates to £10 extra for a Band D household. 

It will also be added to a 1.9 per cent tax increase for Cleveland Fire Brigade – which equates to £1.47 more for a Band D home. 

Total tax rises in Stockton (excluding parish precepts – 2020/21)

Band A – £1,326.65 – up £48.95 on last year

Band D – £1,989.98 – up £73.43 on last year

Councillors' allowances will be frozen after April under the plans – staying at £9,300 for the year. 

Cllr Tony Riordan, interim Conservative group leader, said his party was meeting to discuss the budget proposals on Monday and would respond in due course.

Stockton South MP Matt Vickers is still a councillor for Hartburn.

The Tory MP has been contacted for comment.