Council agrees 2025-2026 budget and strikes the District Rate

At a Special Council meeting held on Thursday 6 February 2025 at the Townhall, Enniskillen, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council agreed a revenue budget of £45.4 million, a Capital Plan of £31.25 million and the District Rate for 2025-2026.

Significant work has been undertaken over recent months to prepare a budget that funds key local services and a comprehensive capital programme to improve the whole District, strengthen local communities and enhance the wellbeing of residents, within an ongoing challenging economic environment of cost pressures and a reduction in Central Government funding.

The Council has continued to manage its finances prudently and has implemented £1.3m in budget savings, the same level as budget savings in the prior year, effective use of Reserves which has utilised £0.5m from the Covid reserve and has left a remaining balance of £0.5m for future years. The Council has actively pursued external funding including new additional funding for additional service provision in the Community and has established an elected member income generation working group to identify opportunities to minimise District rate increases and impact on ratepayers.

Councillors struck a District Rate increase of 3.76% for domestic (residential) and non-domestic (business) properties, representing an increase of £1.50 per month for the average domestic (residential) property with a capital value of £115,000 and an extra £4.00 per month for non-domestic (business) properties with an average net annual value of £5,000, on the 2025-2026 District Rate portion of the rates bill.

The Council also plans for an ambitious £31.25m capital investment programme in 2025-2026 (as part of a 5 year strategic capital investment plan), which will improve local infrastructure and facilities for the benefit of all. The capital investment programme will attract external funding opportunities of £22.7m which reduces the cost of Capital investment in the District on ratepayers.

Proposed capital projects include:

• Leisure Centre upgrade works across the District;
• Mid South West Projects;
• Town centre regeneration;
• Ongoing delivery of the Council’s Play Strategy to upgrade play areas across the District;
• Strategic Capital Projects  –  Community Capital Grants Programme;
• Essential investment in new vehicles, equipment and plant to further support service delivery; and
• Development works at waste facilities.

The setting of the District Rate will generate approximately £45.4m of rates income to support the delivery of key services across the Fermanagh and Omagh District in 2025-2026 and meet the Council’s priorities as set out in the Fermanagh and Omagh Community Plan 2030 and the Council’s Corporate Plan.

The Council is responsible for delivering a range of core and statutory services including waste collection and disposal; Environmental Health; Registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships; Planning; Building Control and cemeteries. It also delivers a number of additional services to support and enhance the wellbeing of ratepayers including leisure and recreation, theatres and tourist facilities, street cleansing and public conveniences and community and business support.

The rates bill, issued by Land and Property Services (LPS), is made up of the District Rate (set by Council) and the Regional Rate.  The Regional Rate is agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive to support the delivery of services such as roads, health, education, emergency services, law and order and social services.

As the Regional Rate has yet to be set by the Northern Ireland Executive, the overall impact on the rates bill for 2025-2026 is not known.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council receives approximately 45% of the income raised through the overall rates bill. The remaining 55% is paid to Central Government.

For further information on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s 2025-2026 budget and the setting of the District Rate, including a ‘How we use your rates’ online tool where ratepayers can check the exact contribution they make to the Council to fund local services and useful Questions and Answers, please visit the Rates section on the Council website at www.fermanaghomagh.com.