15% increase to Council Tax – a budget built around public feedback

Elected members at today’s meeting of Orkney Islands Council’s Policy and Resources Committee have recommended a 15% increase in Council Tax – or £3.95 extra per week at Band D. 

This will bring the cost for a Band D property to £1574.60 per year, protecting services and bringing Orkney’s Council Tax rate closer to the national average. 

Members were presented with four options at the meeting. 

These options were built around previous Council decisions and the clear feedback received from the Council’s Budget Challenge survey which ran between December 2024 and January 2025 when the public said they were willing to pay higher levels of Council Tax in order to protect Council services.

47% of those surveyed said they’d be willing to pay increases of either 15% or 20% to protect services in the future - with 40% expressing preference for a 10% increase.  

The survey found significant opposition to five of the savings proposals that had been put forward, namely:

• Charging for extra-curricular trips at Papdale Halls of Residence
• Charging for placing requests at Papdale Halls of Residence
• Closing the Dounby recycling centre
• No longer emptying civic amenity site skips on a Saturday morning
• No longer providing free black bags in the isles 

Based on this feedback, elected members opted to protect these services and – following a vote of 11 to 10 – to increase Council Tax by 15%, protecting services in the future and bringing Council Tax rates closer to the Scottish average, in line with their agreed medium term financial strategy. 

Councillor Heather Woodbridge is Leader of Orkney Islands Council. She said: “The options which were brought forward to us today had incorporated the feedback we received from the public in our recent budget survey – in which our community told us not only about the services they most valued but that they were willing to pay more to protect those services.  

“It was clear from the responses that were received how important Council services are locally – and our approach to our budget setting reflects that.”

That recommendation will now be going to Full Council on 4 March 

Notes to editors 

The options considered by members at this morning’s meeting were: 

• Option 1 - Increase Council tax by 10% and approve a full list of proposed savings of £737,700 – including those saving to which there was significant opposition 

• Option 2 – Increase Council Tax by 11% and approve a list of proposed savings, taking out the proposals for which the public were most against in the budget survey 

• Option 3 – Increase Council Tax by 15% and approve a list of proposed savings, taking out the proposals for which the public were most against in the budget survey and bring Orkney council tax rates closer to the Scottish average 

• Option 4 – increase Council tax by 20% with their no proposed savings