Great Yarmouth Borough Council set its budget for 2026/27 at a meeting on Tuesday, when councillors agreed to increase the authority’s portion of borough residents’ council tax bills by 2.99pc.

This means that for an average Band D property in the borough, Town Hall's part of the annual council tax bill will be £198.25 - an increase of £5.76 per annum from last year.

The move comes after Norfolk County Council recently agreed to increase its share of council tax by five per cent for 2026/27 and Norfolk Police Authority earlier agreed to increase its share by 4.53pc.

Great Yarmouth Town Hall. (Image: Newsquest)

By comparison, the borough council's 2.99pc rise is the smallest percentage increase of the three major precepting authorities in Norfolk.

Councillors also agreed that council home rents will increase by 4.8pc for 2026/27, which means the weekly rent on a two-bedroomed property will go up, on average, £4.53, from £94.52 to £99.05.

The meeting also heard that the council's overall net budget for 2026/27 is in the region of £17.5m, up from £16.9 million in 2025/26.

To balance the budget, the council plans to make £150,000 in savings and draw £214,000 from reserves. This is notably less than in 2025/26, when the council needed £600,000 in savings and £613,000 from reserves.

Councillor Carl Smith, council leader, said: ‘’Despite the challenging financial landscape, we have been able to produce a prudent and balanced budget.

Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council. (Image: Newsquest)

The tax rises follow a major shake-up in how the government funds local councils - which now takes into account relative deprivation, meaning authorities serving more deprived populations should, in principle, receive more.

For the borough council this has meant an increase of 14.7pc over the next three years.

However, this is still low compared to the average increase across the sector of 24.3pc.

Cllr Smith said: "We have ensured we can continue to deliver cost-effective services for our residents, even if it is hard to understand why our settlement from the government should be almost ten per cent less than some other deprived parts of the country.’’

© Eastern Daily Press