North Yorkshire council tax rise has been approved after councillors backed a 4.99% increase as part of the authority’s budget for the 2026–27 financial year, despite opposition warnings about the impact on households already under pressure from rising living costs.
The Conservative-led North Yorkshire Council confirmed the increase includes a 2% adult social care precept and will add more than £95 a year to the bill for a Band D property. The budget proposals were approved during a full council meeting on Friday, with senior figures saying the rise was unavoidable in order to address future funding gaps and protect essential services.
Deputy leader Gareth Dadd, the council’s executive member for finance and resources, said the authority was facing financial realities beyond its control. “We’re living in the real world and you can only play with the cards you’re dealt,” he told councillors, adding that difficult choices had been required to balance the books.
Opposition groups criticised both the scale of the council tax increase and wider budget decisions, arguing that the burden would fall most heavily on those least able to afford it.
Opposition Raises Concerns Over Cost Pressures on Residents
Councillor Kevin Foster, leader of the Green Party and Independents group on North Yorkshire Council, said his group could not support the budget. He warned that the council tax rise, combined with a proposed 4.8% increase in council house rents, would deepen financial hardship for vulnerable residents.
“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,” Foster said during the debate.
Liberal Democrat councillor Matt Walker also criticised the spending priorities within the budget, pointing to what he described as misplaced investment decisions. He highlighted a £1.1m upgrade planned for the council-owned Filey Brigg Caravan and Camping Site, while funding for other services was being reduced.
Walker said the budget included a £500,000 cut to disabled children’s services and a £50,000 reduction in public health community involvement funding. He also noted that the council plans to stop providing Christmas trees and hanging baskets in the former Harrogate and Scarborough districts and to discontinue free newspapers in libraries, according to information from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“We were promised that local government reorganisation would deliver efficiencies, but today’s budget proves the opposite,” Walker told the meeting.
Council Defends Spending Priorities and Social Care Funding
Responding to the criticism, Dadd defended the council’s record and said protecting vulnerable residents had remained a core priority over several years.
“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,” he said.
“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 have previously blamed the government’s fair funding settlement for the need to increase council tax, arguing that rising demand for adult social care and children’s services continues to outpace central government support.
Government Funding and Wider Local Authority Pressures
In response to criticism, a government spokesperson said ministers had committed £78bn in funding for local authorities across England. North Yorkshire Council is set to receive £756m in funding for 2026–27 as part of that settlement.
Across the UK, councils have increasingly relied on council tax rises and social care precepts to balance budgets amid inflation, higher wage costs, and growing demand for statutory services. Many authorities argue that funding settlements do not fully reflect the pressures created by an ageing population and rising care needs.
The approved North Yorkshire council tax rise now means households will face higher bills from April 2026, with political debate continuing over whether local government funding reform is needed to prevent further increases in future years.