Councils across the North East are warning that council tax rises may now be unavoidable, as increasing financial pressures push local authorities toward the brink.
00:00In North Tyneside, leaders have revealed that the council is facing a major budget deficit of more than £31 million for the next full financial year.
00:09The shortfall has been described as the result of unprecedented pressures, driven largely by soaring demand for adult social care,
00:17increasing costs linked to support and looked after children, and a sustained rise in the complexity of cases the council is having to deal with.
00:25Initial proposals going before councillors later this month include a 4.99% rise in council tax, the maximum increase allowed without a public referendum.
00:36A report published ahead of the Labour-run cabinet meeting warns that the authority may also need to make favour redundancies, just a year after plans were announced to cut 200 jobs.
00:46The council is also preparing to review its estate of public buildings, considering which ones are genuinely needed and which assets might be sold to generate savings or capital receipts.
00:58Charges for garden waste bins have already been confirmed to rise by £5 from 2026.
01:04Finance officers say North Tyneside must also find ways to deliver send services more cost effectively,
01:10and hope that opening more children's homes will reduce the council's expensive reliance on external placements.
01:17Despite the proposed tax increase and new savings measure, North Tyneside still expects to face a £2.9 million budget gap next year.
01:26The council acknowledges it may need to dip into reserves to plug the immediate shortfall, but stresses this cannot continue indefinitely.
01:34Director of finance John Ritchie said the council is managing public money responsibly in very difficult circumstances,
01:41adding that rise in demand and nationally set costs are outpacing the funding local authorities receive.
01:47Meanwhile, the situation is equally challenging in County Durham, where the council expects to make nearly £73 million in savings over the next four years.
01:56Despite expressing a desire not to raise council tax during that period, the authority unveiled £10 million of new savings proposals in an effort to balance the books.
02:07But what do locals think? How would they feel about a potential rise in council tax? And what do they think the money should be going to?
02:14In order to keep running council services, if they need to raise council tax, then it's kind of inevitable, it has to happen. But obviously it's not ideal.
02:29The inside of Durham, you know, it's very kind of built up because of the student income and all of that that is brought to the as a result of the university.
02:38I feel like more should be kind of dedicated to the outside and more to the residents of actual Durham, because the students obviously are a large sum of the revenue.
02:49I think that we definitely need to increase funding for public transport, especially because there's so many students here, you know, it can get overloaded quite quick.
02:58During that time and time and time and time and time and time here, there's such파 Enexplosants that seem to be able to run the budget first and then it can hjelrate.
Be the first to comment