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 everyone in the area can use.
This money, together with government grants and business rates, is used to pay for 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 and is only a small amount of our overall funding. Like all of our funding, it goes towards paying for key services. The rest comes from Government grants and services that we charge for.
Find out how we work out your bill.
Council Tax spending for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
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
| Service directorate | Spending | Income | What we need from council tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Children and Young People | £351.450m | £269.064m | £82.385m |
| Community Wealth Building | £54.035m | £27.438m | £26.597m |
| Environment and Climate Change | £81.254m | £95.663m | £14.408m |
| Health and Social Care | £209.992m | £81.503m | £128.489m |
| Homes and Neighbourhoods | £61.842m | £29.812m | £32.030m |
| Resources | £212.010m | £170.330m | £41.680m |
| Strategy and Programmes | £5.675m | £2.336m | £3.340m |
| Central costs, government funding and business rates | £74.995m | £242.777m | £167.782m |
| Total | £1,051.253m | £918.922m | £132.331m |
Increase to Council Tax
This table shows why we need to increase Council Tax by £6.5m between last year and 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027.
| Council Tax requirement 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | £125.804m |
|---|---|
| Inflation, demand and other growth | £37.488m |
| Other adjustments | £23.572m |
| Savings | £7.388m |
| Council Tax requirement 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 | £132.331m |
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.