Council Tax Freeze and £5 million support package for Wychavon Residents

Wychavon’s share of Council Tax will be kept on hold for the seventh time in nine years as part of an ambitious budget to support our residents, businesses, communities and the environment.

The proposed freeze will mean the average Band D Council Tax for Wychavon’s services will remain at the current level of £128.21 for 2026/27, or less than £2.47 a week, for everything from award-winning parks and public toilets to business support and help with housing. It will maintain Wychavon’s position as the district council with the fourth lowest Council Tax in the country.

A £5 million support package offering a mixture of grants, free and discounted council services over the next two years has also been announced. The We Are Wychavon Support Fund will focus on the council’s priorities of people, place and environment. Details of the package are still being finalised, but it will support schemes focused on encouraging people to be more active, health prevention, boosting skills and business growth, young people, wellness and connectivity. The aim is to ensure all residents, in all parts of the district have the opportunity to benefit. Further details will be released soon.

An extra £3.7 million will also be spent delivering Wychavon’s services from April.

Further funding is earmarked for significant investment across a range of projects to enable business growth, strengthen communities and support the environment.

These include:

• £400,000 for a new community grants scheme which will provide smaller grants to help community groups improve their local area.
• Up to £4 million to decarbonise Pershore and Evesham Leisure Centres (Energy efficiency measures are being installed at Droitwich Spa Leisure Centre as part of the current upgrade).
• £872,000 to support Wychavon’s economy including an extra £412,000 in a new Wychavon Growth Grant and Wychavon Rural Grant to continue to support small and medium-sized businesses across the district with expansion projects.
• £100,000 in grants to support energy efficiency schemes for community buildings and biodiversity improvements for communities.

This is on top of multi-million-pound commitments already made by Wychavon for major regeneration and wellbeing projects, including Evesham Town Centre through redevelopment of the Riverside Shopping Centre site and upgrades to the lido and leisure centre in Droitwich Spa.

Cllr Richard Morris, Leader of Wychavon, said: “Because we are a well-run council that for many years has managed our finances sensibly and invested wisely, we are in a position to support our residents and businesses when times are tough.

“Freezing our share of the Council Tax will avoid adding to the financial burden people already face. Together with our unprecedented £5 million We Are Wychavon Support Fund, and millions of pounds of investment across Wychavon, this is a budget that will make a real difference to our residents, communities, businesses and environment.”

Cllr Emma Stokes, Wychavon’s Executive Board Member for Resources, added: “In Wychavon we’re always working to reduce the cost and not the service. We will continue to deliver award-winning parks and public toilets, a high-quality waste and recycling service, leisure centres, events, housing support, action on fly-tipping and a lot more – and all for significantly less than the average cup of high-street coffee!

“This is a budget that keeps bills down and ambition high with more money staying in residents’ pockets, more money to improve services, more money to boost businesses, more money to strengthen our communities and more money to deliver regeneration where it’s needed most. Our strong financial position is partly due to decades of sensible capital investments in schemes providing a good financial return.”

The budget proposals will go for approval at a Full Council meeting on 25 February.