Council tax rise and job cuts proposed
LDRSA local authority has proposed raising council tax by 4.99% in April and cutting 75 jobs in order to balance its budget.
Newcastle City Council said the cuts to staff, about 1% of its workforce, were part of £3.9m in planned savings for the next financial year.
Labour council leader Karen Kilgour described the proposed budget as one that would build a city "where every resident can thrive".
But the authority also warned its projections suggested it would overspend its current budget by £9.6m, which would have to be funded through its reserves unless another solution was found.
Growing cost pressures will outweigh the fact the council's budget is expected to increase by about £35m in the 2026-2027 financial year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
This includes an expected £30m jump in social care costs alone due to inflation and increased demand.
The authority said it will have to find savings totalling £40.1m over the next three years, having already cut £400m since 2010.
As part of the proposed £3.9m cuts in next year's budget, the council has suggested combining its customer contact services to one centre, capping spending on agency workers and training staff to use AI to "work smarter".
It also said it was committed to avoiding compulsory redundancies "as far as possible" regarding the 75 job cuts.
Kilgour said budget plans were "about cutting waste, improving efficiency and re-designing our services so that we can deliver a higher quality service at better value for money to the taxpayer".
A public consultation on the draft plans will run until 21 January, with the final budget due to be signed off in March.
