Rates to increase by 2 per cent

Rates to increase by 2 per cent

10 February 2016

THE district rate is to increase by just under two per cent.

Local politicians meet tonight in Downpatrick to strike the new rate and are expected to unanimously agree an increase of 1.94 per cent to finance Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s £25m budget.

After many weeks of tough negotiating behind the scenes with council directors in charge of all the local authority’s main departments, councillors held a final meeting in Newry on Monday to agree the rates increase which will be tabled at a special meeting at the Downshire Civic Centre later this evening.

Councillors will insist it is vital the local authority gets the balance right between not overburdening ratepayers and ensuring it can still invest in the district. As a result, they have dipped into the council’s financial reserves to ensure the increase is kept as low as possible while maintaining services at current levels.

The increase is marginally above the current rate of inflation and while it’s understood a number of council directors were keen for the increase to be higher, one local politician said they could not countenance such a move in the current economic climate.

He said councillors are acutely aware that many people across the district, including those in the business sector, are finding it tough at the moment and did not want to sanction a rates increase that would have major repercussions and plunge them into deeper financial difficulty.