Residents in north Norfolk will have to fork out more on council tax in the next financial year.

Councillor Eric Seward, North Norfolk District Council’s deputy leader, told a cabinet meeting on Monday residents would face higher bills in the 2021-23 financial year starting in April.

But Mr Seward said that although the district council was responsible for collecting the tax, more than 90pc of it would be passed onto other authorities including county, town and parish councils as well as the police and crime commissioner.

Fakenham & Wells Times: Houses in Cromer. Residents across north Norfolk will face higher council tax bills in the next financial year.Houses in Cromer. Residents across north Norfolk will face higher council tax bills in the next financial year.


Mr Seward said: “This budget is a balanced budget for the next financial year.

“It is a budget which maintains existing council services. There are no cuts or use of financial reserves to cloak a budget deficit.”

Mr Seward said the council’s ongoing programme of improvements continued. These included: “The expected opening of our new leisure centre in Sheringham in August, to the ongoing refurbishment of our most widely-used toilets, and initiatives such as tree planting under our agreed climate emergency agenda.

“All this is being done with a council tax increase [for the district council’s part of the bill] for most households of less than £5 per year, or around 10p a week.”

For a Band D property, the district element of council tax would go from £153.72 in 2020/21 to £158.67 in 2021/22.

Mr Seward said there was uncertainty around how much financial support the government would be able to give councils in the future in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “The guidance from government civil servants is that ministers expect councils to use their incumbent council tax raising powers wherever possible and not to do so means they are not taking the addressing of future financial deficits seriously.”

The cabinet voted to approve the budget, and it will go before a full council meeting on February 24 for final approval.

If approved in its current form, the district council’s part of the bill would raise £6,400,000, and town and parish councils in the district would get just over £2,500,000.