Gateshead Borough Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 21 March 2025

About Gateshead Borough Council

Demographics

Gateshead Borough Council is a metropolitan borough within the metropolitan county of Tyne & Wear. Gateshead borders with the local authority areas of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, County Durham, Sunderland and South Tyneside. The local authority sits within the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) and is one of 14 local authorities within the ICS patch.

Gateshead has a population of 197,722. 80% of the population are adults and 23.1% of the population are aged 65 and over. The overall population in Gateshead is expected to grow by 5% by 2043 and it is projected that the population of people aged 65 and above will increase by 29% within that time.

In Gateshead, 31% of the population live in the 20% most deprived areas in England. Gateshead has an Index of Multiple Deprivation score of 8, with 10 being the score for the most deprived regions. The local authority is the 43rd most deprived local authority in the country. The population of Gateshead is predominantly white with 7% identifying themselves as an ethnicity other than white. The minority ethnic population is made up of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. There is a large orthodox Jewish population in the borough, Muslim communities and a small, growing asylum seeker population.

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Gateshead Borough Council are:

• The local authority estimated that in 2022/23, its total budget would be £379,166,000. Its actual spend for that year was £392,867,000, which was £13,710,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £90,572,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23 Its actual spend was £94,624,000, which is £4,052,000 morethan estimated.
• In 2022/2023, 24.08% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through ASC precept varies from local authority to local authority.​
• Approximately 3750 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 550 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/24. ​Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

This data 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.