Rates 2026/27

Council agrees its budget to fund ambitious investment for 2026/27 

Derry City and Strabane District Council today agreed its budget for the incoming 2026/27 year and set a District Rate increase for ratepayers of 4.48%, setting a course for continued regional growth despite a backdrop of continued economic challenges. 

The budget for the year will see an average rates bill increasing by £27.79 per year, or approximately 53p per week for the average domestic ratepayer. 

The budget was set at a Special Meeting of Council today, Monday, 09 February 2026, where Elected Members agreed the rates, balancing the immediate cost-of-living pressures on citizens with the necessity of maintaining critical frontline services, while also delivering a transformative and ambitious capital investment programme. 

Presenting the report to elected members at the meeting, Lead Finance Officer Alfie Dallas explained that the 4.48% increase consisted of two components - a sub-inflationary 2.68% baseline increase to cover statutory pressures and inflation with 1.8% of the increase relating to growth and new service development - with a particular focus on Council’s ambitious capital programme and strategic leisure projects. 

With inflation currently running at 3.4%, he advised that the baseline increase reflected rising costs for utilities, waste contracts, maintenance and materials as well as provide for employee pay awards reflective of global cost of living pressures. Investment was also required to compensate for cuts to government grant funding and address demand and resourcing pressures across several critical front line services including licensing, planning, building control, animal welfare and a new waste crew, reflective of new housing development across the District.  

He explained that the Derry City and Strabane District Council area has the lowest average property values in Northern Ireland and therefore must strike a higher rate poundage than wealthier regions to generate the same level of income for services and that, whilst lower property values would ensure that average rates bills would remain lower than the majority of other Councils, Council would continue to push for required Government policy intervention including the reinstatement of the Rates Support Grant to support ratepayers of less wealthy Council areas. 

Members were informed that despite all the financial pressures, this year’s rates investment showed that Council was strongly reaffirming on its commitment to invest for the future with the Council’s core focus on progressing with its unprecedented and ambitious £711m capital investment programme. 

The 1.8% new rates investment in growth and new service development included new resources within Council’s City Deal team focusing on social value, benefits realisation and inclusivity to support the transformative £307m programme of investment, as well as specific resources towards the implementation of Council’s poverty action plan. 

In addition, with the design teams now in place for Council’s two exciting strategic leisure projects in Templemore and Strabane and recent endorsement of current masterplans, facility mixes and project scopes, the specific investment in this year’s rates would now ensure that funding of up to £120m is in place towards these exciting projects as they now progressed to detailed design, consultation and planning. 

Mr Dallas also outlined Council’s continued commitment to community capital projects with confirmation of a further £1.4m Council match funding investment aimed at securing £12.6m of Government investment through the Shaping Sustainable Places initiative, which would see the delivery of a range of capital projects across the District. 

He advised that this would be in addition to those projects already approved and being progressed across the District including DNA Museum, Strabane Public Realm, Riverine, 3G pitch refurbishments at Foyle Arena, Bishops Field, and Leafair, Melvin Arena floodlighting, Derg Active, the development of nine play parks across the Council area, new community centres at Glenview, Springhill, and Ballymagroarty/Hazelbank, along with the completion of the new cemetery development at Mullenan, and the delivery of greenway lighting projects at Foyle Valley Road, Drumahoe Road, and Bay Road/Boomhall. 

In concluding, he highlighted to Members the additional £1.1m non-recurrent funding earmarked within this year’s rates process is for a number of key priorities, including £300k to refresh Christmas lights, £600k for a pilot sports development grant programme as well as an additional £200,000 being channelled into the delivery of the city’s world famous Halloween festival, which this year marks its 40th anniversary. The additional funding will go towards enhancing the programming and the marketing of the event, which has grown to become the biggest celebration of its kind in Europe, drawing over 120,000 visitors to the official home of Halloween. Planning is already underway to ensure this year’s event is even bigger and better than ever. 

For business ratepayers, further to Government’s postponement of the non-domestic property revaluation process, the 4.48% increase would see the non-domestic district rate rise to 41.3735 pence in the pound. He noted that many business ratepayers would continue to avail of substantial rating reliefs with 14% of the district's 5,672 non-domestic properties completely exempt from rates, 40% benefitting from Small Business Property Relief and 7% availing de-rating relief.  

The Special Council meeting took place at the Guildhall and was streamed live and is available to watch back on the Council’s Youtube Channel. 

The accompanying reports and papers are available online at – Derry City & Strabane - Agenda for Special Meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council on Monday 9 February 2026, 2.00 pm 

For more information on the rates visit the website at – Derry City & Strabane - Your Council 

Rates Breakdown 

The Councils estimated revenue expenditure (net of specific grant income and fees and charges from council services) in 2026/27 will be £85.519m. 

Net Revenue Expenditure 

The following chart demonstrates how this money will be spent across each of our Service Directorates:- 

Total Income 

For the financial year 2026/27, the net expenditure will be funded from the following sources of income- 

Rates breakdown per household 

The following table is based on the average property value and details what the average ratepayer in the Derry City and Strabane District Council pays in 2024/25 compared to the N. Ireland Council average: 

Domestic Ratepayer Examples Based on Average House Values 

This year’s District rates increase of 4.48% will mean an average increase of £27.79 per annum or 53p per week and will see the average domestic District rates bill increase to £647.52.  

NON-DOMESTIC RATES 

Non-domestic rates are a rate for all business properties, such as offices, factories and shops, with bills based on the rental value of your property as at March 2023.. 

Further information and the updated Non domestic valuation list can be found online at the attached link:- 

https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/news/reval2023-will-help-rebalance-business-rates 

Non domestic ratepayers will also see District rates bills increase by an average of 4.48%.   

There are a range of reliefs available to business ratepayers. These include the following:-  

• Small Business Rate Relief 

• Small Business Rate Relief for small Post Offices 

• Charitable Exemption for rates 

• Sports and Recreation Rate Relief 

• Residential Homes Rate Relief 

• Industrial Derating 

• Non-Domestic Vacant Rating 

• Hardship Rate Relief 

• Rural ATMs 

Of the 5,672 non-domestic properties within the Derry City and Strabane District Council area, 812 (14%) are completely exempt, 2,279 (40%) avail of Small Business Property Relief of between 20% and 50%, and 373 (7%) are manufacturing or sport and recreation businesses who avail of de-rating relief of between 70%-80% of their rates bills.  

More details can be found at the attached link:- 

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/help-available-business-rates 

Rates 2026/27 

The 4.48% District rates increase has resulted from the following factors and impacts:- 

UPDATED SERVICE COSTS 2026 27 

A summary of costs and income for all Council service areas for 2026 27 is provided in the table below:- 

when will I receive my rates bill for 2026-2027? 

All ratepayers will receive their 2026-2027 rates bill, which is made up of the district rate (55%) and regional rate (45%) set by central government, from Land and Property Services. The date of issue will be confirmed by Land and Property Services in early April 2026..