How we spend our budget

The council spends around £1.1 billion each year across council services, our housing stock and capital programme.

Ring fenced money

Much of this money is ring fenced, such as:

around £120 million for schools
£135 million for housing benefit payments
£120 million for services for council tenants

That ring fenced money can only be spend on the things that is given to us for - so we can't spend ring fenced money for schools on fixing roads, or housing benefits on bin collections.

Revenue and capital spending

The rest of our budget is used for our wide range of statutory responsibilities - the things we must do by law - and to meet the needs of our residents, communities and city.

This spending is separated into two types:

Revenue expenditure - money used to deliver day to day services such as refuse collection and caring for vulnerable people
Capital expenditure - money used for buying, updating or improving physical assets like buildings or roads

In 2023 to 2024 we plan to spend £627 million on day to day public services and invest £140 million in capital projects such as roads and housing.

A pie chart showing how Newcastle City Council spends its money, broken down by service area

Of that "day to day" budget we spend:

34 percent on adult social care
18 percent on children's social care
16 percent on education
9 percent on public health
8 percent on environmental and regulatory services
5 percent on roads, highways and transport
4 percent on central services
3 percent on housing services
2 percent on cultural and related services
1 percent on planning and development services

The £627 million comes from:

income of £365 million that we expect to receive from specific grants, sales, fees and charges and other contributions.
£262 million, which is paid for from a combination of things like general Government grants and council tax.

For more information see: