Council budget

An introduction to the council's budget and how we spend money.

How we spend our budget

The council spends around £1.2 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
  • £84 million for housing benefit payments
  • £130 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 2024 to 2025 we budgeted to spend £684 million on day to day public services and invest £155 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:

  • 52 percent on social care
  • 21 percent on education
  • 8 percent on environmental and regulatory services
  • 7 percent on public health
  • 5 percent on roads, highways and transport
  • 3 percent on housing services
  • 2 percent on central services
  • 2 percent on cultural and related services
  • 1 percent on planning and development services

The £684 million comes from:

  • income of £403 million from specific grants, sales, fees and charges and other contributions.
  • £281 million, which is paid for from a combination of things like general Government grants and council tax.

For more information see:

More detailed budget information

Medium term financial plan

Our draft medium term financial plan sets out how we propose to tackle the ongoing budget challenge.

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April 2024 to March 2025

Detailed proposals for 2024 to 2025 can be found in our:

More details, including our proposed approach for future years and integrated impact assessments, can be found in: