Leeds City Council
Strategy and Resources - Financial Services
Civic Hall
Leeds
LS1 1JF
Why council tax has gone up
Since 2010 the money we have received from the Government has significantly reduced. This year, whilst resources receivable from the Settlement Funding Assessment has increased, this is outweighed by estimated cost and demand pressures and a reduction in Business Rates income. In addition to having to make £46.60m of efficiencies in the forthcoming year we still require an increase in Council Tax of 4.99%. This will provide an additional income from Council Tax of £32.5m enabling us to deliver essential front line services.
We are spending more money (around 66% of our net budget) on supporting older people, keeping vulnerable children safe and helping people with disabilities.
Full explanation of the council tax increase
The council has to prepare its annual budget within the limits set by the Government’s spending plans. Our annual budget is set within the context of the Government’s Autumn Budget delivered on 26th November 2025, which set overall Local Government funding for 2026/27. The detailed funding Settlement for Local Government for 2026/27 was then announced on 9th February 2026 and has provided a three-year Settlement.
To date the council has responded successfully to the financial challenges we have faced. Although our budget strategy does see many areas of the council continuing to reduce budgets, we continue to focus on the outcomes outlined in our Leeds Ambitions strategic plan. Our ambitions focus on improving outcomes across the 4 ambitions of: healthy, growing, thriving and resilient. Our shared goal is "To be the best city for everyone who lives, works, studies or visits here — a city that reaches its full potential by tackling poverty and inequality".
Recognising the increasing demand for Adult Social Care (ASC) services, in 2016/17 the Government announced a new power for local authorities with social care responsibilities to increase council tax. Government has permitted up to a 2% increase for the ASC precept for 2026/27. The Leeds element of council tax for 2026/27 is therefore increasing by 4.99%, made up of a 2.99% core increase plus 1.99% to be used exclusively to protect and improve ASC services. This increase is within the limits set by Government.
Council tax bills include amounts (also known as “precepts”) for the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Fire and Rescue Authority. The Police and Crime Commissioner has increased the Police council tax by £15.00 (5.70%) per Band D property and the Fire and Rescue Authority have increased their council tax by £5.00 (5.92%) per Band D property. As a result the overall increase in council tax in Leeds is 5.12%, which in cash terms is £110.61 for a band D property - equivalent to £2.12 per week.
For those living in areas with parish or town councils the overall increase may be slightly different, because many local precepts set by these councils, which are included in your council tax bill, have also changed this year.
Our consultation on the Proposed Budget for 2026/27 told us that people were generally supportive of the council’s approach to the budget, with 74% of those responding agreeing that we should raise money through increasing council tax and charges and 43% of those agreeing that this should be balanced with cuts and reduction of services.
When asked how much they agree or disagree with the proposal to increase council tax in Leeds by 4.99%, 2.99% for the core Leeds element, plus an additional 2.00% to support adult social care services, just over two thirds (68%) of respondents agreed with our approach to increase core council tax for 2026/27, with a slightly smaller proportion (61%) agreeing with our approach of applying an additional levy to support adult social care services (27% strongly agreed and 34% tended to agree).
Overall, 31% of respondents were generally in agreement with the proposed revenue budget at the time of the consultation. A futher 38% said they neither agree nor disagree in response to the question.
Around 66% of our expenditure for 2026/27 will be on Adult Social Care and Children’s Services, reflecting our Leeds Ambitions priority that Leeds will be a healthy and caring city for everyone.
We have included extra funding for Adult's and Children's Social Care to reflect the increasing demand and demographic pressure for care packages.
In addition:
As an authority, we have budgeted to increase our lowest pay rate to the Real Living Wage of £13.45 per hour. We have also, in respect of services commissioned from external providers by both Adults and Health and Children and Families directorates made financial provision to be consistent with the national minimum wage assumptions for 2026/27.
As an authority, we continue to support our most vulnerable Council Tax payers by continuing to provide Local Council Tax Support at the same level as in previous years.
The budget includes additional funding for services relating to the prevention and relief of homelessness in the city.
Additional budget provision has been made for the increased demand and disposal costs of waste across the city.
What we use the money for
Council tax helps to pay for vital services that we provide for people across Leeds every day. This includes:
- keeping children safe
- supporting older and vulnerable people with the costs of care
- preventing homelessness
- tackling crime and antisocial behaviour
- keeping streets and neighbourhoods clean
- looking after local parks and community spaces
- investing in the city's infrastructure
What it is not used for
Council homes
Council Tax is not used towards rent or repairs for council homes. We use money raised through rent to pay for these services.
Schools
Schools are funded by the government through a grant.
How much money we need
For 2026/27 we need over £2.9 billion to provide the key services needed by the people of Leeds. This is in line with last year.
Where our money comes from
We get our money from lots of different sources such as grants, rents, taxes and fees. The money we raise through council tax is around 16% of our 2026/27 budget.
To find out how much council tax will be this year visit our bands and charges page.
| Source | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| External income | £1,768 million |
| Internal income | £373 million |
| Council Tax | £479 million |
| Business rates | £448 million |
| Total | £3.067 billion |
How much we spend on each service
Your council tax is calculated by adding together the money needed by:
- the council
- the West Yorkshire Combined Authority
- the Environment Agency
- the Police and Crime Commissioner West Yorkshire
- the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority
- your parish or town council (if you have one)
Council services
Council Tax is one of a number of sources of income for Leeds City Council and represents 16% of the Council’s gross income.
Many of these sources of income can only be spent on certain things such as Government grants meant for specific purposes, some fees and charges and rents. These can be directly linked to particular types of expenditure.
Other sources of income are not ringfenced to particular services, including Council Tax. These sources of funding are pooled and are used to meet budget gaps, where specific funding is not sufficient to meet the costs of a service. It is not possible to directly link these non-ringfenced sources of income to individual services or items of expenditure.
The table shown here provides an indication of how the income from Council Tax supports the following council services by apportioning Council Tax across these services.
| Service | Net Spend | Amount From Council Tax | Amount per £1 of Council Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Social Care | £350.9m | £181.8m | £0.32 |
| Children's Services | £254.8m | £132.0m | £0.23 |
| Refuse Collection, Street Cleaning and Waste Disposal | £66.9m | £34.6m | £0.06 |
| Other (including Environmental Health and community safety etc.) | £61.7m | £32.0m | £0.06 |
| Public Transport Support | £39.m | £20.2m | £0.04 |
| Leisure | £38.7m | £20.1m | £0.04 |
| Accessible Services and reducing poverty | £48.7m | £25.3m | £0.04 |
| Roads | £26.1m | £13.5m | £0.02 |
| Housing Services | £21.1m | £10.9m | £0.02 |
| Libraries & Learning | £8.6m | £4.4m | £0.01 |
| Total | £916.5m | £474.9m | |
| Police | £69.4m | £69.4m | £0.12 |
| Fire | £22.3m | £22.3m | £0.04 |
| Total including police and fire precepts | £1,008.2m | £566.6m |
This table shows the percentage of our budget that we spend on the different resources we need to operate.
| Resource | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Employees | 36% |
| External service providers | 25% |
| Supplies and Transport | 21% |
| Paying benefits | 6% |
| Maintaining buildings and premises | 6% |
| Paying Debt and Interest | 6% |
Police and fire services
The police and fire services also use council tax to help fund their services. The amount they need is shown separately on your bill.
This table shows the total amount of money they need from council tax.
| 2025/26 | 2026/27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Police and Crime Commissioner West Yorkshire | £64.2m | £69.4m |
| West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority | £20.6m | £22.3m |
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 2,292 km of main rivers and along tidal and sea defences in the area of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Money is spent on:
- building new flood defences
- maintaining the river system
- maintaining existing flood defences
- operating a flood warning system
- managing the risk of coastal erosion
Regional committee financial information
This table shows the total amount of money they need from council tax from across the whole of Yorkshire.
| 2025/26 | 2026/27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross expenditure | £104.48m | £70.51m |
| Levies raised | £3.03m | £3.13m |
Investing in the future for Leeds
We are investing £1.5 billion over the next four years in important infrastructure projects across the city. This investment could create 5,632 jobs and an extra £671 million per year for the local economy.
We are investing:
- £402 million to maintain current council housing stock
- £273 million to support and maintain highways, bridges, street lighting, and sustainable active travel
- £238 million for new council housing
- £121 million for new learning places and to support and maintain schools and other children’s services
- £58 million for sport and leisure facilities
- £44 million to support private sector renewal including provision of adaptations/ disabled facilities
£402 million is also being invested in developing:
- economic regeneration as part of the George Street Development Project; Levelling Up fund 'Heart of Holbeck' Project; Morley Town Fund; and Leeds Integrated Station Masterplan
- other leisure and cultural facilities including Parks and Countryside Schemes and woodland creation, Leeds Town Hall, and British Library at Temple Works
- new technologies, energy efficient vehicles and buildings and stimulating transformational change in council services
You can find out more about how we are investing in Leeds in our Leeds Ambitions online.
Adult Social Care precept
The Adult Social Care (ASC) precept is an extra amount of tax that helps pay towards caring for elderly and disabled people in Leeds. The Government introduced the precept to help councils make up the shortfall in funding for the costs of care.
It is not a direct charge for using services and every home pays it, even if someone living there is paying for their own care.
Statement concerning adult social care funding
Since 2016/17, adult social care authorities have been allowed to increase their Council Tax by an additional amount specifically for expenditure on adult social care. “Adult social care authorities” are local authorities which have functions under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, namely county councils in England, district councils (both metropolitan and unitary authorities) for an area in England for which there is no county council, London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.
For the financial year 2026/27, the Secretary of State confirmed in the Local Government Finance Settlement 2026/27 that adult social care authorities would be able to increase council tax by up to an additional 2% for adult social care expenditure without the need for a local referendum.
On 7 January 2025 the Government published: The Council Tax (Demand Notices and Prescribed Classes of Dwellings) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 which stipulated that councils no longer show separately the amount of the council tax increases since 2016/17 that are reserved for Adult Social Care on council tax bills.
On a band D property in Leeds the total increase since 2016/17 to be spent on Adult Social Care is £319.85
Parish and town councils
Some parts of the Leeds City Council area are served by parish or town councils. These councils are separate from Leeds City Council. They elect their own councillors and set their own budgets. They are responsible for making the town or parish a nice place to live.
If you live in one of these areas, your council tax will be higher to pay for your share of the parish or town council. This extra charge is called a precept and will be shown separately on your council tax bill.
Parish and town council precept information
| Parish | Parish precept 2025/26 | Parish precept 2026/27 | Parish band D council tax 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aberford and District | £23,000 | £23,000 | £1,933.53 |
| Allerton Bywater | £82,964 | £81,066 | £1,959.23 |
| Alwoodley | £51,660 | £64,496 | £1,921.48 |
| Arthington | £3,075 | £3,382 | £1,914.96 |
| Bardsey cum Rigton | £43,500 | £42,665 | £1,941.54 |
| Barwick in Elmet and Scholes | £48,733 | £50,682 | £1,929.18 |
| Boston Spa | £78,417 | £81,938 | £1,945.02 |
| Bramham cum Oglethorpe | £34,000 | £35,292 | £1,951.70 |
| Bramhope and Carlton | £74,500 | £84,000 | £1,941.60 |
| Clifford | £42,667 | £44,288 | £1,957.01 |
| Collingham with Linton | £54,000 | £95,000 | £1,955.64 |
| Drighlington | £86,250 | £89,250 | £1,944.55 |
| East Keswick | £23,847 | £25,000 | £1,946.26 |
| Gildersome | £26,467 | £27,526 | £1,918.54 |
| Great and Little Preston | £30,500 | £34,500 | £1,959.99 |
| Harewood | £21,220 | £22,278 | £1,915.83 |
| Horsforth | £152,367 | £215,000 | £1,932.12 |
| Kippax | £197,111 | £197,740 | £1,967.26 |
| Ledsham | £6,919 | £7,084 | £1,979.99 |
| Micklefield | £92,628 | £94,405 | £1,989.97 |
| Morley | £242,000 | £242,000 | £1,924.68 |
| Otley | £502,480 | £512,530 | £2,004.80 |
| Pool in Wharfedale | £58,000 | £58,000 | £1,963.00 |
| Rawdon | £44,550 | £46,235 | £1,920.45 |
| Scarcroft | £33,060 | £40,000 | £1,940.08 |
| Shadwell | £49,350 | £51,820 | £1,957.00 |
| Swillington | £34,135 | £45,906 | £1,952.26 |
| Thorner | £34,483 | £35,979 | £1,951.76 |
| Thorp Arch | £30,000 | £33,300 | £1,969.14 |
| Walton | £7,736 | £8,110 | £1,970.99 |
| Wetherby | £593,694 | £654,419 | £2,031.00 |
To find out more, contact your parish or town clerk, or local parish or town councillor.
If you need contact details for your parish or town clerk you can contact the council’s Parish Liaison Officer on 0113 378 7783.
If you want to know more
You can find more information on our:
- Budget - Our financial plans
- Annual Statement of Accounts - Our financial performance
- Capital Programme, Best City Ambition and other Strategic and Business Plans - Plans and strategies
You can also ask for paper copies by writing to:
