North Yorkshire 4.99% council tax rise approved

Council tax bills in North Yorkshire are set to rise by 4.99% after the council approved its budget for 2026-27.

The Conservative-led authority said the hike - which includes a 2% precept for adult social care - would add more than £95 to the annual bill for a Band D property.

The council previously said the rise was necessary to help plug future funding gaps and the proposals were approved at a meeting on Friday.

Deputy leader Gareth Dadd, executive member for finance and resources, said: "We're living in the real world and you can only play with the cards you're dealt."

Councillor Kevin Foster, leader of the Green Party and Independents on the council, said his group could not support the rise and criticised proposals in the budget to also impose a 4.8% increase on council house rents.

"These are not abstract figures in a report; this is real money being taken from people who often have the least capacity to absorb extra costs," he said.

Liberal Democrat councillor Matt Walker told the meeting the budget included a £1.1m upgrade for council-owned Filey Brigg Caravan and Camping Site, but a £500,000 cut to disabled children's services and £50,000 removed from public health community involvement.

He also noted that the council would stop providing Christmas trees and hanging baskets in the former Harrogate and Scarborough districts and discontinue free newspapers in libraries, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Walker said: "We were promised that local government reorganisation would deliver efficiencies, but today's budget proves the opposite."

Dadd responded: "Everything we've done over the last four or five years, and in fact before that, as a county councillor, has been prioritising those at what the layman would call bottom of the pile, those in need, those vulnerable people.

"There's nothing in it for us politically, as you will know, but we've done it because it's the right thing to do, and as long as I'm here we'll continue to do it."

Senior councillors previously blamed the government's fair funding settlement for the need to increase council tax.

In response, a spokesperson for the government said it had committed £78bn for local authorities, with North Yorkshire Council set to receive £756m in 2026-27.

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