The council tax precept for North Yorkshire's fire and rescue service is to increase by £24 for a Band D property.
This increase, which is the first Mayoral General Precept for the region, equates to a rise of 28.9% over the previous year's fire and rescue precept. The proposed annual precept will be £107.02 for a Band D property.
The Mayor is using his flexibility to raise the precept to a level he sees appropriate. The increase is intended to address several financial pressures.
- Funding Losses: The increase is proposed to cover £1.4 million of expected funding losses. The government's provisional settlement for 2025-26 has removed the Rural Services Delivery Grant, resulting in a loss of £699k per year for North Yorkshire Fire. Additionally, the minimum funding guarantee has been effectively scrapped, leading to a further reduction in funding of £669k. There is also a loss of £43k due to the removal of the Services Grant. The settlement also includes a compensation for underindexing of business rates with the council receiving £66k less.
- Cost Pressures: The precept increase is also designed to mitigate significant inflationary pressures on both pay and non-pay budgets. Overall staff costs are expected to increase by £2.7m in 2025/26. Pay awards for firefighters are set at 4% and staff at 2.5%, increasing costs by a further £915k. Non-pay pressures include increased training costs, premises costs, and IT and insurance costs.
- Reserve Rebuilding: A portion of the increase will allow the Fire Service to rebuild reserves to more sustainable levels. Currently, reserves are at 3% of income, and the goal is to increase this to 5%.
- Investment: The plan includes setting aside £1 million per year for four years for capital investment to improve efficiency and meet future needs. This will allow the Fire Service to start investing and improving the service.
Mayor David Skaith says the increase is needed after years of underfunding and says the scale of the increase is supported by the results of a recent consultation on fire service funding
Deputy Mayor Jo Coles says, "We wouldn't do it if we didn't think the service needed it, but the service does need it,". The Deputy, who has responsability for the Polcie and Fire services, said that without the increase there was a danger that the fire service would be unable to cope with major incidents, she says years of funding shortfalls have left the service in a difficult position.
The Mayor says that the precept increase is fundamentally about keeping the public and frontline service workers safe. Mayor David Skaith stated, "when it comes to keeping people safe and our blue light services, our frontline services safe, I find that a fairly easy decision to actually make". The increase in the precept will enable the service to be there for the public when they need it.
The tax base for the region has increased significantly, by 9,124 Band D equivalent properties, partly due to a policy change where second homes pay double the council tax rate. The 2025/26 tax base is 324,231.47 Band D Equivalent properties.
The Combined Authority’s Director of Resources, Mike Russell, says the near 29% increase will help alleviate some of the current financial pressures.
The final budget, reflecting any recommendations, will be presented for final approval on 7th February 2025.
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