Newcastle City Council have signed off on £14.4m in spending cuts, 40 job losses and a tax rise of 4.99% in an attempt to find £60m before 2027.
The 2024-25 budget was voted through at the start of March and the proposals include:
Cutting 40 council jobs, which includes 20 posts that are currently vacant.
An increase in charges for wheelie bins and garden waste collection, along with parking permits and car parking.
The removal of the Intensive Family Intervention Team, which works with families with children at risk of being taken into care.
Charging schools an extra 50p per meal while reducing a subsidy for the school meal service by £537,000.
Cutting the budget of a scheme designed to support independence from £475,000 to £100,000. This scheme provided access to basic items, such as cookers and beds, to people in poverty.
A council tax increase of 4.99% which is the maximum allowed. This includes a 2% precept towards cost of adult social care. which increases it between £63.85 and £191.55.
Completely ceasing the council's crisis support service. The service had an annual £100,000 budget to help people in emergencies through situations such as financial abuse and domestic violence.
The budget cuts to social care and schemes come amid delayed plans to slash the number of emergency beds available for Newcastle's homeless, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Nick Kemp, the Labour leader of Newcastle Council, has said: “Sadly after 14 years of austerity there is no low hanging fruit left and many of the decisions we have taken to balance the budget have been painful."
The council, which has declared bankruptcy, has sparked discussions of a financial crises in local government
He warned that local authorities are being plunged into an "existential crisis" by the current model of funding councils which "simply does not work". This budget came the day after Birmingham City Council voted to make £300 million worth of cuts and a 21% council tax hike over the next two years. The council, which has declared bankruptcy, has sparked discussions of a financial crises in local government.
