Faced with inflation, rising demand for social care and years of Government cuts, Newcastle City Council has some tough decisions to make to balance the books in 2025-26. Since 2010 the council has saved £381m and is forecast to need to save a further £62.8m over the next three years - £21.3m next year rising to £23.5m in 2026-27 and then £18m in 2027-28. The Council's Cabinet met on Tuesday 10 December to consider the proposals and begin a five-week consultation period so the public and partners can give their views. 

Our proposals include the following, to raise money and make savings: 

We propose to save £21.3m by:

We plan to spend all the additional £9.2m raised through council tax on frontline services such as waste collection and maintenance, and also to remodel our social care services while trying to minimise the impact of changes on people using these services.
We propose a net spend of £293m on day-to-day services, and also to invest £153.4m on capital projects. A 'capital project' is a long-term  investment to build, add to, or generally improve an asset, such as a building or road. Our proposed capital projects include new housing, roads and schools, supporting the local economy and creating employment opportunities. Money for capital projects cannot legally be spent on providing services.
We will also shed 40 posts by deleting existing vacancies and redeployment, and we will work closely with trade unions to avoid compulsory redundancies. 

The full details of our budget can be found here: Full Budget 2025-2026 and you can find out more about how our budget is set here: How we set our budget. You can see the Leader of the Council, Cllr Karen Kilgour, speaking about the budget in the video below.
If you, or someone you know, need an Easy Read version of information about our budget, you can read this here: 2025 2026 Newcastle Council Budget - Easy Read

When you've done this, you can take part in our short survey, at the bottom of this page, to give your views on our budget proposals as a whole - what impact you think they will have on the Newcastle area, and any suggestions you have for how we can save money or generate income. You can also give your views by emailing us at: letstalk@newcastle.gov.uk. We have also produced Word and PDF versions of our questions, which can be printed off, completed, and returned to us at: FREEPOST Let’s Talk (this is the full address) if this is easier for you or someone you know:

We also have three proposals we would like feedback on about: 1) changes to the reablement service (this is a short-term service that helps people regain the skills and confidence they need to live independently at home), 2) the school meals service, and 3) to Council Tax and the adult social care precept. We would like to hear any comments you have to make specifically about these proposals - click on the links below to give your views. 

The People's Budget is our online budget simulator, where residents can try out setting their own spending priorities for the city, looking at how we might make savings, generate income, and what to do about whether or not to raise Council Tax and the Adult Social Care Precept.  To try it for yourself, click here: People's Budget 2025-2026

We will consult on our draft budget proposals from 11 December 2024 until 15 January 2025. In February 2025, Cabinet will be asked to recommend the post-consultation budget to City Council. City Council will debate and vote on the budget at their meeting in March 2025. We will publish the final budget proposals, including a report on the consultation findings, on our website: Newcastle City Council. Thank you for giving us your views.