Newark Town Council precepts to increase by 11% for next year’s council tax bills

Councillors have voted on next year’s precept and taxpayers will have to pay 11% more for services in Newark next year.

Newark Town Council members have approved the budget and precepts for the next financial year 24/25 at a full town council meeting on Wednesday (January 24).

The town council’s portion of the tax bill is to increase by 11%, which it says will be less than a pound extra per month for 88% of the taxpayers of Newark.

The tax increase will generate £133,700 a year, which still doesn’t give the council any surplus money that can be transferred to reserves.

It was proposed at the meeting by the Finance and General Purposes Committee chairman Barbara Corrigan to increase council tax by 15% rather than the talked about 11%, which caused a mixture of approval and shock from councillors.

Residents living in Band A properties are currently paying £79.88 per year for Newark Town Council’s services.

The 11% increase will see a rise to £88.67 per year for the portion going to the town council.

The highest rate on Band H properties will increase to £266 a year rather than the current £239.63, with an increase of £2.20 per month.

Councillor Corrigan said: “To my mind to truly try and balance the budget and make sure we are putting some money on reserves on the side I feel that unfortunately, I would be more comfortable if we were raising the precepts by 15%.

“11% is a compromise that gets us just about balancing for one year ahead and does nothing putting nothing in reserves to fill the hole that is coming in our budget in the next three years.”

Councillors said they had previously put bills up by an average of 1.9% and felt pressure to raise the numbers or risk following the same path as many councils across the country which are in financial difficulty.

Paul Taylor, who admitted to being ‘absolutely stunned’ by the 15% proposal, suggested an amendment to 5.9%, which is three times more than the council’s historical increase. However, his amendment didn’t get enough votes.

The close to 6% proposal would cause the council to be in a deficit of £45,000, which would still not enable the town council to put money into its reserves.

Councillor Neil Ross said: “At this point, it is very tempting to look at five years ago, 10 years ago and say if only things have been done differently, at that point we wouldn’t have to make this sort of difficult decisions today.

“Personally, I don’t think that is very helpful, we don’t have a time machine, we can’t go back and say the 1,9% wasn’t enough last year or the year before.

“As a council, we want to deliver the playparks, safe play for the children, we want the cemetery that is up to standards and available for members of the public, we want the market to as vibrant as it possibly can be, we want things like public toilets that are decently priced and accessible, we have a duty to do it, but we also a moral and economic duty to the town to provide these services.

“Unfortunately they got way more expensive over the past few years. It causes all of us pain having to say this but we have to lead the council with responsible resilience and management.”

Councillor David Moore said: “The 11% squeezes the council through without anything for maintenance, it doesn’t fill any holes, which is why 15% is the sensible way to go, no one wants to spend any more money but at the end of the day we need money to run the town.”

“As we sit right now, we are short on a great deal of money and we are going to get shorter and shorter and shorter and we can’t continue to do what has been done down the line and just quick this problem into the lawn because next year it’s going to be 25% or 30% that is needed.”

Had a 15% town council increase been approved, the majority of properties in Newark would have to pay less than £1.50 extra a month.

Band A properties would increase to £1 per month, meaning it would be £91.86 rather than the current £79.88.

Council clerk Matthew Gleadell said at last week's Finance and General Purposes meeting that the increase was needed because of the additional expense caused by the cost of living crisis, inflation and national wage agreement increases.

In 2015, Newark Town Council took on responsibility for a significant number of public assets from Newark and Sherwood District Council under a devolution agreement.

The agreement included support funding and annual grants from the district council to help the town council adjust to its new responsibilities.

The housing growth forecasts – which would have delivered funding for the new assets – haven’t been met for many reasons and the annual financial support is to be received for the last time during the financial year 26/27.

This is contributing to the town council needing to find other ways to balance its budget – with money needing to be found over the next three financial years to avoid the need for significant cuts.

Esther Cropper proposed an amendment of an increase of 11% to Barbara Corrigan’s initial proposal of 15%.

“I am not keen on increasing what we ask from the taxpayers at all and looking through figures and trying to work where we are now and where we need to be, I don’t see another option other than increasing the 11%.

“Perhaps in the future, we can be in a position where we can do things differently and hopefully we will be, but I don’t see another option for tonight.”

On a named vote, the 11% amendment was approved by the town councillors with nine votes for, zero against and eight abstentions.