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
City Hall is set to hike council tax as it seeks to make millions of pounds in savings.
Norwich City Council is proposing the rise for households in order to address “substantial financial challenges” which it continues to face.
The authority needs to make more than £3m in savings over the coming year and hopes to achieve this through increased government funding and restructuring.
However, its draft budget also outlines plans to increase council tax by 2.99pc in order to balance the books.
This means people living in Band D properties in Norwich will pay £306.11 - an increase of £8.89 a year for council services such as bin collections, street cleaning and social care.
The fee also funds staff pensions and last year Norwich made pension contributions of £3.27m, which was 3.8pc of the £86.29m it raised in council tax.
Norwich City Council has outlined £3.2m of savings and additional income it needs to make this year but expects the budget gap will only continue to widen in 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 funding of £740,000 for exploratory work on drawing up designs for a possible revamp of Norwich Market and a further £750,000 for a similar scoping project to investigate the possible redevelopment of City Hall to create a new hotel complex or flats.
Nevertheless, the tax hike faced by Norwich locals pales in comparison to others around the country, with authorities such as Bristol City Council seeking an increase of 15pc.
Norwich City Council’s 2025/26 budget will be brought to the full council for consideration this week.