What your council tax pays for
Find out what services your council tax is being spent on.
Council tax is how people who live in an area help pay for the cost of local services that residents can use.
This money, together with Government grants and business rates, is used to pay for vital local services like schools, rubbish and recycling collections and libraries, as well as services provided by other London-wide organisations like the Greater London Authority (GLA) for police, fire brigade and transport.
Council tax is not a separate part of our budget - like all our funding it goes towards paying for key services.
Council tax is around 12 per cent of council funding. The rest comes from Government grants and services that we charge for. Find out how we work out your bill.
Council tax spending 2025/26
Our council tax requirement for 2025/26 is £125.8 million.
This table shows:
- spending - what we plan to spend on council services for 2025/26, including staffing costs, equipment, contractors and more
- income - how much money we expect to get from all sources other than council tax, such as parking charges and business rates
- what we need from council tax - this is the amount we still need to meet our spending plans that council tax will fund this year (around 12% of our overall budget for services).
A minus (-) figure in 'what we need from council tax' means the service has more income from other sources than they expect to spend, lowering the amount of council tax we need from you.
| Service directorate | Spending | Income | What we need from council tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive's | £0.4m | £0.3m | £0.1m |
| Children and Young People | £337.7m | £255.1m | £82.8m |
| Communities, strategy and change | £20.9m | £7.1m | £13.8m |
| Community Wealth Building | £43.6m | £26.1m | £17.5m |
| Environment and Climate Change | £77m | £88.4m | - £11.4m |
| Health and Social Care | £209.6m | £146.7m | £62.9m |
| Homes and Neighbourhoods | £51.1m | £28.9m | £22.2m |
| Resources and central costs | £269.8m | £336.9m | - £67.1m |
| General contingency | £5m | £0 | £5m |
| Total | £1,015.3m | £889.5m | £125.8m |
Using other funding to limit the increase in council tax
This table shows how we have worked out an increase in council tax of £7.6m between financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26 by using other funding to keep the increase lower while still reaching the amount we need.
Government funding increase to councils, savings we have made and business rates income we have kept all help reduce the amount we need from council tax.
| Council Tax requirement 2024/25 | £118.221m |
|---|---|
| Inflation, demographic pressures (such as increase in population) and other growth | £38.203m |
| Increase in Government funding | - £14.560m |
| Savings we have made | - £14.181m |
| Business Rates income we keep | - £1.879m |
| Council Tax requirement 2025/6 | £125.804m |
Council tax spending 2024/25
This table shows how your council tax was spent in 2024/25.
| Service Directorate | Spending | Income | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Social Services | £163.4m | £91.7m | £52.2m |
| Chief Executive's | £0.4m | £1.4m | £1.3m |
| Children and Young People | £325.7m | £237.5 | £87.6m |
| Community Engagement and Wellbeing | £21.5m | £7.6m | £13.9m |
| Community Wealth Building | £42.9m | £25.2m | £17.7m |
| Environment and Climate Change | £76m | £86.1m | £10m |
| Homes and Neighbourhoods | £36.3m | £23.2m | £13.1m |
| Public Health | £31.6m | £31.6m | £0 |
| Resources and central costs | £271.6m | £331.9m | £60.3m |
| Contingency allocation | £5m | £0 | £5m |
| Total | £974.426m | £856.205m | £118.221m |
What else your council tax funds
Find out more about other organisations and projects that your council tax funds on the GLA website. We also have to charge levies on council tax for important projects and funds for people in London and the South East.