Norfolk County Council will consult on a 3% or up to 5% council tax rise and £32.3m of savings, including less gritting and paid bays in Norwich.

Norfolk County Council has published £32.3 million of savings for next year and will ask residents how much council tax should rise. The options are about 3% or up to the 5% limit. The council’s chief finance officer already expects to recommend the maximum.

The proposals go to the council’s Cabinet on Monday 5 October. They are set out in a 36-page report, Strategic and financial planning 2027-28, published with the Cabinet agenda on 25 September. The council summarised it in a news release the same day.

The county council is the biggest part of a Norwich council tax bill. It runs social care, the roads, schools transport, libraries and the recycling centres. The city council sets its own, much smaller, share separately.

The gap, and how far the savings go

The county’s medium-term plan, agreed in February, left a £35.927m gap for 2027-28. The report sets out how that has moved:

Step £m
Gap agreed in June 35.927
New savings proposals -32.333
Change to savings already in the plan +10.407
Updated funding assumptions -3.250
Updated growth forecasts -4.554
Gap still to close by January 6.197

So about £6.2m is still missing. Of the £32.333m of proposals, the council says £3.120m are one-off measures, many of them spending reserves for a single year.

Over four years to 2030-31 the gap is £148.531m. That grew in June, when Cabinet added a fourth year to the plan.

What it means for your council tax

The plan assumes a 4.99% rise: 2.99% general council tax plus 2% for adult social care. The report says every 1% is worth about £6m to the council.

Cabinet is being asked to consult on two options: “an increase around current inflation levels of 3%, and an increase to the referendum threshold of up to 5%”. The report also records that the Section 151 officer, the director of strategic finance, “anticipates recommending” the maximum increase allowed.

In pounds, for a band D home in Norwich, the county’s share this year is £1,843.38, according to the city council’s 2026/27 bill breakdown. On that figure, our calculation is:

  • A 3% rise would add about £55.30, taking the county’s share to £1,898.68.
  • A 4.99% rise would add about £91.98, taking it to £1,935.36.

Those are the county’s share only. Norwich City Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner set their parts of the bill separately, and nothing is final until February. Bands A to C pay less than band D, in fixed proportions.

The Norwich proposal: free bays become paid

One line in the report names the city directly. Proposal INF018 would convert “existing 2-hour free parking bays into paid bays” at Norwich sites, under the county’s civil parking enforcement. It is costed at £20,000 a year.

The report does not say which streets or how many bays. We will report the locations when the council publishes them. Our parking in Norwich page has the current car park charges, which changed on 21 September.

What residents would notice

Most of the money comes from adult social care. The two largest proposals are:

  • £6.928m from changing how the council buys care from outside providers
  • £5.860m from new neighbourhood teams that aim to deal with problems early, before people need formal care

Seven proposals affect services directly enough that the council says they need a public consultation of their own.

Bar chart of the seven Norfolk County Council savings proposals for 2027-28 that require public consultation. Road maintenance activities £475,000, verge grass cutting £300,000, gritted routes £225,000, hazardous waste disposal events £200,000, weed killing £110,000, post-16 home to school transport contributions £92,000, closure of Docking Recycling Centre £60,000.
The seven savings going to their own public consultation. Chart by The Norwich Times
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  • Highway maintenance: a 5% cut in revenue maintenance work, saving £475,000
  • Grass verges: less cutting, saving £300,000
  • Gritting: 5% fewer treated routes, saving £225,000
  • Hazardous waste: fewer disposal events, saving £200,000
  • Weed killing: fewer treatments on the highway, saving £110,000
  • Post-16 school transport: higher contributions from parents, saving £92,000 next year and £277,000 the year after
  • Docking Recycling Centre: closure, saving £60,000. Docking is in west Norfolk, about 40 miles from Norwich.

Other items on the list, which the report does not put out to separate consultation:

  • Morningthorpe Recycling Centre would close when its lease ends, saving £95,000. Morningthorpe is near Long Stratton, about 12 miles south of Norwich.
  • Your Norfolk, the council’s residents’ magazine, would stop, saving £130,000.
  • The council’s tent and displays at the Royal Norfolk Show would be cancelled, saving £40,000.
  • £850,000 more would come from fees and charges in the council’s infrastructure department. The report does not list which charges.
  • Cutting libraries’ non-staff spending would save £100,000.

What happens next

  • Tuesday 29 September, 5pm: deadline for public questions to the Cabinet meeting, by email to committees@norfolk.gov.uk.
  • Monday 5 October: Cabinet decides whether to put the proposals out to consultation. The meeting is streamed on the council’s YouTube channel.
  • Wednesday 28 October: the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.
  • Late October to mid December: public consultation on the savings and council tax, on the council’s Citizen Space site.
  • December: the provisional government funding settlement, which the report says is unlikely before mid December.
  • Monday 25 January 2027: Cabinet agrees its final recommendations.
  • Tuesday 16 February 2027: Full Council sets the budget and council tax.

What it means for you

  • If you want to be heard, the consultation opening in late October is the route. It covers both the savings and the level of council tax.
  • If you drive, the gritting, verge and maintenance cuts would not touch this winter. They are savings for the 2027-28 financial year, which starts in April 2027.
  • If you park on-street in Norwich, watch for the list of 2-hour free bays the council proposes to charge for.
  • If you have a child going into sixth form or college, the post-16 transport proposal has its own consultation, separate from the main one.

The council stresses that no proposal is decided. Its report says final decisions on the budget, the savings and council tax “will not be made until Full Council in February 2027”.

Sources