North Tyneside Council will continue to drive forward its ambitious plans to bring new homes, jobs, and investment to all parts of the borough, despite facing another year of sustained financial pressure.
That’s the message from North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE, after this year’s budget was agreed at a full council meeting on Thursday evening (February 20).
The local authority continues to operate in a very difficult and uncertain financial climate, as a result of sustained Government cuts, increased costs, and growing demand for services - particularly in adult and children’s social care.
The council must save a further £4.67m over the coming year and £39.6m over the next four years.
To achieve this, the council has now confirmed there will be a 1.99% council tax rise, in line with Government assumptions, plus a 2% adult social care precept to help meet the spiralling costs of adult social care.
The increase will come into force in April.
The council will also set aside £1m for a new Poverty Intervention Fund, aimed at supporting people who are experiencing poverty in the borough.
Still in its early planning stages, the fund will be used to alleviate some of the most difficult effects that living in poverty can have on families and individuals.
Despite the relentless funding cuts, the authority remains committed to improving local people’s lives, continuing to raise standards across all its services, and supporting local job growth and businesses.
The affordable housing programme continues towards the 3,000 homes target, with more than 1,400 new homes already complete, and a string of derelict sites at key locations have been redeveloped into high-quality housing.
Through sound financial management and by listening to residents about their priorities, the council has once again been able to protect key front-line services such as libraries, leisure facilities, parks and community centres.
There will also continue to be investment in roads and pavements, Customer First Centres and schools.
The budget was drawn up following consultation across the borough with residents, community groups and businesses and lines up with priorities in the Our North Tyneside plan, which sets out the council’s ambitions for the next four years.
The Our North Tyneside Plan has been refreshed to reflect two key policy developments. These are the formation of the North of Tyne Combined Authority in 2018 and the council’s declaration of a climate emergency in July last year.
North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE, said: “Another year of funding cuts from central Government, combined with rising cost pressures and growing demand for our services, has made an already daunting task significantly more difficult.
“In spite of this, we remain absolutely committed to improving services and outcomes for local people and businesses and delivering on our ambitions for North Tyneside.
“It’s what we’ve done consistently, through sensible financial planning, over the course of many years of painful austerity.
“As well as working to maintain high standards across all our services, and keep our ambitions for the borough on track, we must also rise to the challenge of confronting climate change. We set ourselves some highly ambitious targets when we declared a climate emergency in 2019, and we are exploring a range of progressive new measures to further reduce our carbon footprint.
“As a council that listens and cares, we know that we can’t achieve our goals without working with our residents and having regular conversations with local people to give them the opportunity to help shape our plans.
"We have engaged thoroughly with residents, community groups and businesses throughout the budget process to establish what’s important to them and plan our finances accordingly.
“They know that there are no easy decisions to be made in the current climate but they can also see that we have been able to maintain high standards across all services, protect libraries and leisure centres, and continued to invest in our environment and local businesses.
“Through shrewd budgeting, we believe we have come up with a budget that makes the best use of our limited resources and ensures the borough will continue to grow, while protecting and delivering essential services and fulfilling our commitments in Our North Tyneside Plan.
“Whatever the future holds, we carry on striving to make our bold ambitions a reality. That means bringing more new jobs, housing, tourism and investment to North Tyneside, unlocking the potential of our people and our places, and always pushing ourselves to be a council that works better for all our residents.”
