National insurance hike to cost Bristol City Council £6m a year
It's feared the increase will add further pressure to already stretched public services
A hike in national insurance will hit Bristol City Council next month costing millions of pounds.
The government is increasing how much employers have to contribute to national insurance, which will add further pressure to already stretched public services.
Last month the council voted through a gigantic budget for the next financial year which begins this April, including a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax. But pressures on the budget continue, as demand for expensive services like social care rises faster than funding from the government.
Also this April, the rate at which employers pay national insurance increases from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent. This could cost the city council about £6 million a year, not including the impacts on Bristol Waste or the hundreds of contractors which help provide local public services.
Green Councillor Tony Dyer, leader of the council, called on the government for both more money and more flexibility on spending that money, in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service. He repeated warnings that without government action, spiralling costs of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities could soon be catastrophic.
Cllr Dyer said: “It’s a huge budget, £1.7 billion for 2025–26 alone. There was an opportunity for members of all parties to contribute to the budget, some more enthusiastically than others. There were a couple of amendments to the budget that went through, which we accepted.
“Now the work shifts because it’s now about delivering that budget, and it’ll be tough to deliver. There’s a lot of investments across the range of what the council does, on housing, children and education, adult social care, public health and transport. There’s a lot of work to do.”
Bristol was given a seven per cent increase in its core spending power, which is more like five per cent when taking into account inflation. But the cost of providing many council services is increasing at double that rate. Cllr Dyer said: “If your income is increasing at half the rate your expenses are, then your problems just get even worse.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the rise in employers national insurance is the right choice in order to fund public services.