Norwich City Council to increase tax by 3% to balance books...

Norwich City Council to increase tax by 3% to balance books

People living in Band D properties in Norwich will pay £306.11 – an increase of £8.89 a year – for council services

In an effort to save millions of pounds, City Hall plans to raise the council tax.

The increase for homes is being proposed by Norwich City Council in order to address the “substantial financial

challenges” that the city is still facing.

almost the next year, the authority has to save almost £3 million, and it plans to do so through restructuring and

greater government money.

However, its proposed budget also calls for a 2.99 percent increase in council tax in order to balance the books.

This implies that residents of Norwich’s Band D properties will pay £306.11, an increase of £8.89 annually, for

municipal services like social services, street cleaning, and garbage collection.

Staff pensions are also funded by the charge; last year, Norwich contributed £3.27 million towards pensions, or 3.8

percent of the £86.29 million it received in council tax.

Although Norwich City Council has set aside £3.2 million in savings and extra revenue for this year, it anticipates

that the budget deficit will only get worse in the years to come.

Officials at City Hall admit “no work has been done” to mitigate this gap amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the

future of local government structure and finance.

Despite this, the authority has recently unveiled several highly ambitious and expensive projects for which taxpayers

are footing the bill.

These include £750,000 for a scoping study to look at the potential reconstruction of City Hall to build a new hotel

complex or apartments, and another £740,000 for exploratory work to prepare concepts for a potential redesign of

Norwich Market.

Although authorities like Bristol City Council are calling for a 15 percent increase, the tax spike that Norwich

residents are facing is insignificant compared to others around the nation.

This week, Norwich City Council’s 2025–2026 budget will be presented to the entire council for approval.