Nottingham City Council plan smallest tax rise amount in 18 years
Nottingham’s deputy council leader says austerity is over in the city
The deputy leader of Nottingham City Council has declared the end of austerity in the city, as the authority plans to raise council tax by the lowest amount in 18 years.
Cllr Ethan Radford (Lab) said council tax will be lower than the 3.99 per cent proposed by Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council, with the exact figure expected to be published next week.
It comes after the authority received an extra £10 million in funding from the Labour Government, as part of its fairer funding review, whereby more resources have been directed to the places that need it the most.
The extra £10 million will be used to keep council tax below the maximum allowed increase of 4.99 per cent – the first time since 2008 – as well as for reinvestment in services such as parks, roads, neighbourhood safety officers and events.
In total Cllr Radford said it will mark a £25 million reinvestment in services, and a reversal on many years of cuts.
“First of all we got our house in order before we received the settlement from Government,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“Without additional money from Government we were already balancing our budget, forecasting at £1m underspend, and investing £15m into frontline services.
“On our own steam, off our own backs, as an organisation with hard work and dedicated staff, we have already got our house in order.
“The extra money from Government is extremely welcome. That doesn’t bail us out, what it does is restore 14 years of underfunding the city has had.
“We’ve been deliberately deprived of the funding we deserve as a city. That money has been given to much wealthier areas like the leafy suburbs of places like Kent, and where Rishi Sunak mentioned, Tunbridge Wells. It is a restoration of the funding we should have received.”
It comes as the council has reduced its general fund debt – the pot of cash for day-to-day services – from £827 million in 2020 to £292 million as of the start of 2026.
Its reserves have also been boosted to more than £60 million, above the recommended level for being considered sensible.
However the turnaround comes after years of significant cuts, with communities and organisations already impacted by cuts to youth provision, culture grants, changes in library provision, and street cleaning.
Cllr Andrew Rule, of the Nottingham Independents and Independent opposition group, described the investment as “backfilling”.
“While the Labour controlling group may not be proposing to increase council tax by the maximum amount, the increase nevertheless comes at a time of sustained and seemingly unrelenting pressure on household budgets, which residents are unlikely to see as an end to austerity,” he said.
“Residents will not forget that the recent years of maximum increases are in part the consequence of the controlling groups’ Robin Hood Energy failure and repaying funds deemed to have been unlawfully spent from the housing revenue account.”
Austerity was a set of strict economic policies, largely put in place by the Conservative Party, to reduce public debt and budget deficits.
“This city was beaten up by the Tories for 14 years,” Cllr Radford added, responding to a question about the lasting impact of cuts.
“Between 2010 and 2024 this authority lost a billion pounds in funding.
“You can’t take resources out of public services over a 14-year period and ignore the consequences of that. What we are seeing now is a reversal of that policy from Government following the general election, by restoring the funding to areas like Nottingham that have lost it.
“There will always be scars of those 14 years. There will always be scars that will never be overcome, but our focus now is to, as quickly as we can, with an extreme degree of pace, restore as much as we can to our public services.”