This week David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire has submitted his proposal for the mayoral general precept for the fire and rescue service and also submitted the provisional police settlement information.
The Mayor will present his draft Fire Budget and proposed fire element of the Mayoral General Precept to the Police, Fire and Crime Panel on Wednesday 21 January and to York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority on Friday 23 January. Both the Panel and the Combined Authority will have the opportunity to provide comments and recommendations ahead of final approval at the Combined Authority meeting on Friday 6 February. The provisional settlement information for the Police Precept will also be presented to the Panel meeting on 21 January and then again on 5 February, once the national policing settlement has been confirmed, for approval.
The public consultation closed on Monday 5 January.
David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, said:
“Our police and fire services do an amazing job keeping us all safe. It’s vital they have the resources to do that well, but I’m also mindful that when family finances are tight that it’s really important that all public money is being spent well.
“In setting the precept level this year I wanted to ensure we balanced delivering the public services people rightly expect, ensuring those services are able to deliver on the priorities I’ve set out, and placing the minimum burden on council tax payers.”
Jo Coles, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime said:
“The funding settlement we received from the Government for the fire and rescue service meant we faced a difficult choice; either to cut front line fire and rescue services or to increase the precept by more than inflation. The public consultation supported the Mayor’s principles of delivering good public services with the minimum possible burden on council tax payers. More than half the respondents also supported the proposal we’ve made for a precept rise of £9.60 or 80p a month for a band D council tax payer to support the fire and rescue service. My role is to hold the service to account to ensure the public get value for money for the investment they’re making in our public services and I will continue to do that so that we can fulfil our ambition of making York and North Yorkshire safe places for everyone.”
Details of the Police, Fire and Crime panel, which will be held at 2.00pm on Wednesday 21 January can be found here: Agenda for North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 2.00 pm | North Yorkshire Council
The consultation report can be found here: Mayors Draft Fire Budget 2026_27 and MTFP 2026-01-21.pdf (appendix 4).
