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 |