Council agreed Budget for 2024/25
Five years ago was the last time the residents of Newbiggin by the Sea saw a change in the amount they pay per household towards the Town Council precept, when we reduced it by 1%.
In the four years since this change (since 2020/21) we have kept the amount payable by households towards the Town Council precept frozen at £115.59 for Band A and £173.38 for Band D properties, respectively.
It should be noted that NO money comes to the Town Council through business rates.
Below is an extract from a Band A Council Tax bill comparing what you paid in 2020/21 to 2023/24.
Council Tax breakdown in 2020/21
Council Tax breakdown in 2023/24
During this time your Council Tax has continued to rise because all other authorities that your Council Tax money goes towards have requested more funding. The total increases over this four-year period are shown below.
From all the authorities listed on your Council Tax bill, the Town Council is the only authority where the money stays 100% in Newbiggin by the Sea. We are transparent about how this money is spent by providing a detailed budget and publishing details of all payments that are made; this can be found here, Financial Information 2023/24.
We’ve managed to keep this frozen despite rises in costs and inflation by using money that we have in General Reserves but our reserves are now depleted and it is not sustainable for us to continue to do this as we should be building reserves for planned asset replacement in the future, and other contingencies.
In January 2023 we made a commitment to look at generating income from alternative sources to supplement our work to allow us to keep our costs low and we were successful in attracting over £102,000 of external funding – this was great news. Details are listed below.
All of our Town Councillors and staff are passionate about Newbiggin by the Sea. We work hard to ensure Newbiggin by the Sea is a pleasant place to live, visit, and work with a safer and cleaner environment and to provide opportunities for the town and community to thrive.
The Town Council is conscious that many households are struggling with the cost-of-living increases, so we have made a commitment for 2024/25 to focus on our core service delivery, with the aim of in the future reaching a point where the precept at a minimum covers our core services. This will allow us to focus on improving the maintenance of what we already have in place ( assets and services). The only project we have planned within our budget for 2024/25 is the restoration of Newbiggin Memorial Park which will be 100 years old this year.
Any other projects that we consider pursuing will be reliant on the ability to secure external funding.
At a meeting held 10th January 2024, the Town Council agreed to set a budget of £302,089 and request a precept of £275,590.
This new precept will equate to £123.68 for Band A (£8.09 increase – 15p per week) and £185.52 for Band D (£12.14 increase – 23p per week). This is our first increase in five years.
This information is broken down into the following budget headings and submitted with our precept request to Northumberland County Council.
A detailed breakdown of our budget is available here: Budget 2024-25
A non-exhaustive list of services we provide is available here, it also details the services of Northumberland County Council. 
