Your views on council tax

Overview

Norfolk County Council plays a huge part in people’s lives – ensuring children and young people have the best start in life, protecting vulnerable people, maintaining a safe road system and helping to create a thriving economy.  We’ll continue to spend over a billion pounds every year providing public services that you, your family and friends use every day.

Norfolk is facing some big challenges though. Our population is growing, people are generally living longer and the type of services that people need is changing.  And as you know, the cost of living is going up.  As things become more expensive we also have higher costs, and the amount of money we have coming in isn’t keeping up.  At the same time the grant that central government gives us has fallen by £189 million since 2011 and is expected to fall to zero by 2021.  

To help us bridge this gap, we are proposing to increase council tax by 4.9% in 2018/19.

Of this proposed increase, 1.9% is for inflation.  When we developed this proposal the maximum amount we could increase council tax by was 1.99% without triggering a local referendum. 

The other 3% is money ring-fenced for adult social care.  In 2016 the Government gave us the opportunity to raise  council tax to help pay for adult social care services – this is called the adult social care precept.  Adult social care services are those that support older people, disabled people and people with mental health problems.  These services help people to stay safe in their own homes and continue to be independent.  Where this is not possible adult social care can support people in residential care.    

The Government has allowed us to increase the social care precept by 6% over a three year period.  Last year we increased it by 3% and this year we are proposing to do the same to help protect vulnerable people.  As the money generated from this increase is ring-fenced we can only spend it on adult social care services.

If our proposal to increase council tax went ahead it would mean that a typical Band D home will see an annual increase of £61.15, that’s £1.17 per week.

We’ve based our budget proposals for 2018/19 on the assumption that council tax will increase overall by 4.9%.  If we do not increase council tax, then we would have to find a further £17.448m in savings. 

On 19 December 2017 the Government announced the provisional local government finance settlement.  This allowed councils to increase general council tax next year by an additional 1% without the need for a referendum.  This means that Norfolk County Council could now increase council tax up to 5.99%.  This would generate around an extra £3.9 million in 2018/19.  A 5.99% council tax increase would see a typical Band D home see an annual increase of £74.74, that's about £1.43 per week.

Why your views matter

We want to find out what people think about our proposal to increase council tax by 4.9% in 2018 and how it might affect them if it went ahead.

In addition, now that the Government has provided this as an option, we are keen to find out people's views on increasing council tax to 5.99%.

Your views will help us to decide whether we should increase council tax in 2018/19.

We will take a report about the findings to this consultation to our Policy and Resources committee on 29 January 2018.  The feedback will also be reported at Full Council on 12 February 2018.

Have your say online by clicking on the feedback form below.

If you need a copy of this consultation document on paper or in a different format please email haveyoursay@norfolk.gov.uk

What happens next

We will take a report about the findings to this consultation to our Policy and Resources committee on 29 January 2018.  The report will feedback what people have told us about the potential impact of our proposal.  The feedback will also be reported at Full Council on 12 February 2018.  Members will use this as part of the evidence they take into account when making a decision about what savings to make.