Belfast rate rise decided in secret session

City Hall, Belfast

Belfast Council has set its new district rate in a secret committee session.

It has been revealed that the new rate will increase from last year by 5.44 percent for homeowners and businesses.

The rate was set at the Belfast City Council Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on Friday morning during a secret “restricted” session away from the public and press.

An inside source revealed the 5.44 percent figure was agreed by all parties in the committee. It will go to a special meeting of the full council next Monday (February 12) to be ratified.

People Before Profit, who are not represented at the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, traditionally object to the Belfast rates rise and will be expected to question the figure on Monday.

The rise is down from last year’s increase, when the council carried through a 7.99 percent rate rise for homeowners and businesses, one of the largest ever. The district rate rise in 2022 was 2.99 percent, the year before was 1.92 percent.

Other councils have already gone public with the rate rise this year.

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council struck its new district rate for April 2024 to March 2025 at 6.86 percent. For householders in the borough, the effect of this increase will be £38.17 per year, or 73p each week, based on a house with the Borough average capital value of £124,728.

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s rates will increase by 3.98 percent, a figure below the UK inflation rate.

The district rate is for home and business owners, and pays for multiple public services, including waste management, leisure/community centres, parks, building control, environmental health, events and recreation, arts and tourism.

It is speculated that the regional rate rise set by Stormont could be around 15 percent. The regional rate covers those public services controlled by the Executive, such as education, emergency, hospitals, law and order, roads, social services and community development.

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