Council Tax explained - Financial summary

Published: 13 March 2024

Total Council Tax requirements 2024/25

Wirral Council £357,616,365

Levies

Transport £23,548,421
Waste Authority £18,092,420
Flood Defence £191,456
Port Health £128,886
Sea Fisheries £77,256
Total for Levies £42,038,439

Precepts

Police & Crime Commissioner £25,435,510
Fire & Rescue £8,759,446
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority £1,823,885
Total for Precepts £36,018,841
Total requirement £435,673,645

Less revenue sources

Business Rates income (£69,031,372)
Business Rates S31 (£33,060,841)
Top Up (£60,610,852)
Social Care Support Grant (£41,899,349)
Services Grant (£568,744)
New Homes Bonus (£78,750)
Collection Fund (surplus) / deficit £1,225,256
Market Sustainability & Improvement (£7,876,618)
ASC Discharge Fund (£4,495,437)
Contribution from Balances / Reserves (£2,000,000)
Total External Support (£218,396,707)
Net Requirement £217,276,937
Tax Base Band D (equivalent properties) 95,993.93
Council Tax for Band D 2,263.44

How spending has changed

Budget Requirement 2023-24 £368.6 million

Increased pressures

Levies and Precepts £2.51 million
Employees £5.75 million
Other Running Costs £4.55 million
Regeneration & Place £1.69 million
Resources £0.75 million
Neighbourhoods £6.90 million
Childrens £6.05 million
Adult Care & Health £15.19 million

Savings and Efficiencies

Neighbourhoods £2.04 million
Regeneration £0.06 million
Children & Families £2.98 million
Adult Care & Health £4.8 million
Finance, Legal, Resource and Cross-cutting Efficiencies £2.51 million
Budget Requirement 2024-25 £399.6 million

How the Council spends its own money (in gross terms)

2024/25 by area of spend Amount
Corporate £202.52 million
Environment  £146.33 million
People £562.20 million
Total £911.05 million
Type of spend in 2024/25 Amount Percentage
Capital £30.37 million 3%
Levies £42.01 million 5%
Employees £163.59 million 18%
Running Expenses £675.08 million 74%
Total £911.05 million

General fund expenditure

  2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
  £m £m £m
Gross expenditure 859.5 895.5 911.1
Gross income (177.1) (168.1) (175.8)
Specific government grants (351.8) (360.8) (335.6)
Net operating requirement 330.6 366.6 399.7
Use of reserves, capital receipts and general balances (4.7) (2.4) (2.0)
Collection Fund (surplus) / deficit 4.1 3.5 1.2
Net budget requirement 330.0 367.7 398.9

Less grants

Business Rates Top Up (54.3) (59.2) (60.6)
Business Rates S31 (21.5) (26.6) (33.1)
Social Care Support Grant (19.9) (32.2) (41.9)
Market Sustainability & Improvement 0.0 (4.2) (7.9)
ASC Discharge Fund 0.0 (2.7) (4.5)
New Homes Bonus (0.4) (0.4) (0.1)
Lower Tier Services (0.5) 0.0 0.0
Services Grant (5.6) (3.3) (0.6)
Market Sustainability & Fair Cost of Care (1.2) 0.0 0.0
Covid Emergency Fund 0.0 0.0 0.0

Local taxation

Business Rates Baseline (63.7) (67.2) (69.0)
Council tax requirement 162.9 171.9 181.3

Add precepts

Police and Crime Commission 22.6 24.1 25.4
Fire and rescue 8.0 8.5 8.8
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 1.8 1.8 1.8
Total Council Tax requirement 195.3 206.3 217.3