Northumberland County Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 24 January 2025

About Northumberland County Council

Demographics

Northumberland County Council covers the largest geographical area in the Northeast, with a population of approximately 324,400. Northumberland is bordered by the Scottish Borders to the north, the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the South, and Cumbria to the west, and with a coastline that runs for 100km. The county has distinct features, ranging from urban, to rural, to coastal and upland areas, and well connected to isolated and remote.

97% of Northumberland is classed as rural, with the most densely populated areas in the 3 largest towns of Ashington, Blyth and Cramlington in the Southeast. These towns are the main areas of employment. Morpeth, Hexham, Prudhoe, Berwick and Alnwick are the main market towns, surrounded by considerable rural landscape. Over half of the population live in towns and urban areas, with just under half living in the rural parts of Northumberland.

97.6% of the population is White British and 3.4% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people. Northumberland has an ageing population with people aged over 85+ expected to increase by 80% by 2043. The average life expectancy at birth for women in Northumberland is 82.9 years, compared to 83.1 in England. For men it was 79.3 years compared to 79.4 in England. There were variations to life expectancy for people depending on where they lived in Northumberland. For example, life expectancy in Croft (in Blyth) was 77 years for women and 71 years for men, compared to Ponteland where it was 94 years for women and 88 years for men Just over a third of household in Northumberland were single person, with 15.6% being a single person aged 66+.

The local authority sits in the Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) and is one of 14 local authorities in the Integrated Care Partnership. One of its key aims is to “combine collective resources, knowledge, and skills both locally and regionally, to plan, deliver, and join up social care.”

Northumberland is s a Conservative led County Council made up of 67 elected councillors, with Labour opposition. There are 33 Conservative members, 19 Labour, 8 Independent, 4 Liberal Democrats, 2 Green party and 1 non-aligned.

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Northumberland County Council are:

• The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £489,213,000 with actual spend £561,789,000 which was £63,576,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £129,829,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend for that year was £136,174,000, which was £6,345,000 more than estimated
• In 2023/24 , 24.24% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/2024 with a value of 2%.
• Approximately 7350 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 1130 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/2023 in this local authority.

The data above is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.