News  »  Lets Talk North Yorkshire - Consultation

Let’s Talk Money

On 1 April 2023, the new North Yorkshire Council will replace the eight councils currently delivering public services across the county. The new council is being built with local at the heart of everything it will do. Local staff providing local services, based on local priorities and decision-making. 

The new council will deliver services including adult social care, housing, waste collection, transport, planning, community safety, children’s services, education, leisure and many more.

The scale of the new council’s operations will see it serve the greatest geographical area of any local authority in the country, and it will have an overall spend of about £1.4 billion, including £343 million on schools.

It will provide around 27,000 hours of personal care every week to over 4,300 people, supporting them to continue living in their own homes, as well as providing care to more than 3,200 people in residential or nursing placements. 

North Yorkshire Council will be responsible for the welfare and education of almost 118,000 children and young people, providing support to over 4,000 children and young people with special educational needs through education, health and care plans.

The new council will manage and maintain more than 8,300 council houses and process around 60,000 housing benefit changes every year.

It will also collect around 325,000 tonnes of waste each year, manage and maintain almost 9,250 km of roads and 1,645 bridges, make almost 7,000 decisions on planning applications and handle around 720,000 customer phone calls. 

For all eight councils, demand for services has exceeded central government funding. There are other significant financial pressures too, with inflation – the rate at which the price of things rises – reaching double figures for the first time in over 40 years. These cost issues, along with staffing challenges, also affect partners and suppliers.

All of these factors combine to make a very challenging financial environment for North Yorkshire Council. However, the new council will meet this challenge head on to protect vital services and continue delivering the help and support that people across the county rely on.

As part of North Yorkshire’s biggest ever county-wide conversation, Let’s Talk North Yorkshire, the public is being urged to pinpoint what the new council should focus on.

People are being asked which services they feel are most important to them before the new council's budget is agreed, what they think about council tax and put forward their ideas for savings by taking part in Let’s Talk Money.

Join the conversation and have your say before 23 December at www.northyorks.gov.uk/LetsTalkNY. The consultation also highlights plans to make the base rate of council tax the same across North Yorkshire as well as proposed changes to council tax for second homes.

Let’s Talk Money is available in a range of formats including large print, easy read and alternative languages. You can also request a printed copy. If you need a different version you can email letstalk@northyorks.gov.uk or call 01609 780780.