No tax rise in mayor’s first 12 months

THE new North East mayor will not be adding to residents’ council tax bills in their first 12 months.

A historic election of a new political leader to represent around two million people across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, and Durham will take place in May.

Under the terms of the multibillion pound devolution struck between local authorities and the Government, the mayor will have the power to put an extra precept on households’ council tax bills to raise extra revenue for the incoming North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA).

But while the identity of the mayor will not be known until May, a decision has already been taken that no such mayoral precept will be issued for the 2024/25 financial year. As NEMCA is not yet in existence, its budget is being agreed by the existing North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) - whose sitting mayor, Jamie Driscoll, is also one of the candidates for May’s election.

Mr Driscoll, who is now an independent after quitting the Labour Party last year, has chosen not to impose a precept since his election in 2019 and confirmed that no new precept would form part of the initial NEMCA set-up. He said: “We have not done that previously and we are not doing that again this year.

“And it means that everything we have done has been funded from the money we have got from central government or levered in from the private sector, which is in the hundreds of millions. I am sure that will be very welcome to people struggling through a cost of living crisis.”