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Introduction
Let’s Talk Money took place from 23 October to 18 December 2023 – it is North Yorkshire Council’s annual statutory budget consultation.
We asked you to tell us how important the council priorities are to you, how you would allocate budget to council services and what your views are on increasing council tax. We also wanted to understand whether people feel that they continue to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
Every year, we want to gather your views on several topics to help inform our annual budget report, which makes recommendations to our council executive and full council for how the next year’s budget should be spent.
The council services allocated the largest budgets by people in the survey are: adult social care (allocated 21% of budget), highways and transportation (11%), education (10%) and children’s social care (10%).
Eight-out-of-ten people say they would support an increase in council tax to help deliver critical services across North Yorkshire. Some 22% of responses would be willing to pay a 1% and the same proportion (22%) would pay 2%. A further 14% would pay 3% and 5%+, but 20% would not support any increase.
Slightly more than half (53%) of people who replied would be willing to pay a 1% (33%) or 2% (20%) increase in council tax to fund adult social care services. Nearly a quarter (23%) would not support an increase of any amount.
People continue to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. More than a quarter (26%) rated the impact as a lot (6%) or considerably (20%) while 39% said moderately. Only 6% said the impact was not at all.
Members of our executive met in January 2024 and approved the proposed budget taking into account your feedback. It was then considered at a full council meeting on 21 February 2024 and was adopted by the council. These increases will be added to the annual billings in April 2024.
Your bills will be sent out to you by mid-March 2024.
The increase in council tax along with the launch of North Yorkshire Council has helped protect front-line services for communities and businesses across the county with millions of pounds in savings set to be achieved, and more financial benefits to be identified over the coming year.