Council tax financial information

How council tax is spent

Find out how we use money raised through council tax and other means to help local people in Leeds in 2024/25.

Why council tax has gone up

Since 2010 the money we have received from the government has significantly reduced. In addition to having to make £63.9m of efficiencies in the forthcoming year we still require an increase in Council Tax of 4.98% to support the additional income from Council Tax of £30.7m enabling us to deliver the front line services we provide to the public.

We are spending more money (around 60% of our entire 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 Statement announced on 22 November 2023, which set overall Local Government funding for 2024/25. The detailed funding Settlement for Local Government for 2024/25 was then announced in December 2023 and, once again, has provided only a one-year Settlement. 

To date the council has responded successfully to this financial challenge. 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 Best City Ambition. Our ambition is for Leeds to be the best city in the UK, to be achieved by focusing on improving outcomes across the 3 pillars of: Health and Wellbeing; inclusive growth and zero carbon. At its heart is our mission to tackle poverty and inequality and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Leeds home. 

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 2024/25. The Leeds element of council tax for 2024/25 is therefore increasing by 4.98%, 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 £13 (5.50%) per Band D property and the Fire and Rescue Authority have increased their council tax by £2.31 (2.99%) per Band D property. As a result the overall increase in council tax in Leeds is 4.96%, which in cash terms is £97.22 for a band D property - equivalent to £1.87 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 2024/25 tells us that people were generally supportive of the council’s approach to the budget, with 80% of those responding agreeing that we should raise money through increasing council tax and charges with half of these (50%) 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 4.98%, 2.99% for the core Leeds element, plus an additional 1.99% to support adult social care services, three quarters (75%) of respondents agreed with our approach to increase core council tax for 2024/25, with slightly fewer (72%) agreeing with our approach of applying an additional levy to support adult social care services (39% strongly agreed and 33% tended to agree). 

Overall, 68% of respondents were generally in agreement with the proposed revenue budget at the time of the consultation. 

Around 60% of our expenditure for 2024/25 will be on Adult Social Care and Children’s Services, reflecting our Best City Ambition priority to support the most vulnerable across the city. 

Despite having to take difficult decisions about the level and quality of services and how to target them towards greatest need, we continue to develop and implement our approach to design care and support arrangements around the strengths of people who draw on care and support services and carers. 

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: 

The council continues to invest in the infrastructure of the city, with funding provided to support and maintain highways, winter service delivery and street lighting. 

Additional funding has been provided for the maintenance of horticultural features across the city including within the highway network and several transport infrastructure improvements, including the East Leeds Orbital route (ELOR). 

As an authority, we have increased our lowest pay rate to £12 per hour, a figure in line with the Real Living Wage rate. 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 2024/25. 

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. 

Additional budget provision has been made for the increased disposal costs of waste at the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility. As an authority we are working to introduce kerbside collection of glass bottles and jars with the intention to introduce this service in 2024. 

Demand pressures for the transportation of adults within Leeds by the Passenger Transport in-house service is provided for in the 2024/25 budget. 

 
 

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 to pay 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 2024/25 we need over £2.5 billion to provide the key services needed by the people of Leeds. This is around £103 million more than 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 17% of our 2024/25 budget.

To find out how much council tax will be this year visit our bands and charges page.

Source
2024/25
Government grants
£1,171 million
Fees and charges
£343 million
Rents
£267 million
Council tax
£422 million
Business rates
£208 million
Other
£121 million
Total £2.532 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 several sources of income for Leeds City Council and represents 16.7% of our 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. 

This table provides an indication of how the income from Council Tax supports the following council services by apportioning Council Tax across these services.

Net spendIndicative amount from council taxIndicative amount per £1 of council tax
Adult social care£207.6m£139.8m£0.28
Children's services£163.9m£110.4m£0.22
Refuse collection, street cleaning and waste disposal£65.5m£44.1m£0.09
Other (including environmental health and community safety etc)£48.6m£32.8m£0.07
Public transport support£34.9m£23.5m£0.05
Leisure£33.2m£22.4m£0.04
Accessible services and reducing poverty£31.5m£21.2m£0.04
Roads£18.9m£12.7m£0.03
Housing services£9.5m£6.4m£0.01
Libraries and learning£8.3m£5.6m£0.01
Total£621.9m£418.9m
Police£60.5m£60.5m£0.12
Fire£19.3m£19.3m£0.04
Total including police and fire precepts£701.7m£498.7m
 

This table shows the percentage of our budget that we spend on the different resources we need to operate. 

2024/25
Employees45%
External service providers22%
Supplies and transport12%
Paying benefits
8%
Maintaining buildings and premises
7%
Paying debt and interest6%

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. 

2023/242024/25
Police and Crime Commissioner West Yorkshire£56.6m
£60.5m
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority£18.5m
£19.3m

Environment Agency

The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 2,292 km of main river 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. 

2023/242024/25
Gross expenditure£91.68m£133.56m
Levies raised£2.83m£2.95m

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 will create 4,900 jobs and an extra £561 million per year for the local economy.  

We are investing: 

  • £325 million to support and maintain highways, bridges, street lighting, and sustainable active travel
  • £324 million to maintain current council housing stock
  • £152 million for new council housing
  • £102 million for new learning places and to support and maintain schools and other children’s services
  • £42 million for sport and leisure facilities
  • £38 million to support private sector renewal including provision of adaptations and disabled facilities
  • £38 million for the Leeds Integrated Station Masterplan

£488 million is also being invested in developing: 

  • economic regeneration as part of the Morley Town Fund; Levelling Up Fund 'Heart of Holbeck' Project; and Kirkgate Market Strategy
  • other leisure and cultural facilities including Parks and Countyside 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 read more about how we are investing in Leeds in our Best City Ambition.

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.

ASC precept increase

The increase for 2024/25 is 1.99%. It is a percentage of the amount paid for Leeds City Council and the amount paid for last year’s precept combined. It does not include the amounts for the police and fire services. 

To check if this is correct yourself, you add the amounts for Leeds City Council and ASC precept from last year’s bill together. To work out 1% divide the combined amount by 100. Multiply this by 1.99 to work out 1.99%. Then add this amount to the amount you paid for the ASC precept last year. This will give you the amount of precept you need to pay this year. 

Example

Sam lives in a Band A property in Big Town. Big Town council are increasing their ASC precept by 1.99% for this year. Sam’s bill says that the ASC precept will increase from £50 to £69.90. Sam thinks the bill looks wrong.  

Last year Sam paid £1,200 in council tax. Sam paid: 

  • £950 for Big Town Council
  • £50 for the ASC precept
  • £150 for the police
  • £50 for the fire service

To check the increase is right Sam needs to work out 1.99% of the amount paid for Big Town council (£950) and ASC (£50).  

Here's how Sam did it:  

£950 + £50 = £1,000
£1,000 ÷ 100 = £10 (this is 1% of £1,000)
£10 x 1.99 = £19.90 (this is 1.99% of £1,000)

Sam then needs to add this to the amount they paid for ASC last year.  

£19.90 + £50 = £69.90 

This year Sam will pay £69.90 for the ASC precept.  

Statement concerning adult social care funding

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has since 2016/17, allowed adult social care authorities 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 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 years 2021/22 to 2024/25 the Chancellor announced in the previous year's Spending Review that authorities would be able to increase their Adult Social Care precept. These were then confirmed with the publication of each year's final Local Government Finance Settlement. 

For the financial year 2024/25, the Secretary of State confirmed in the Local Government Finance Settlement 2024/25 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. 

Calculations for each council tax band

ASC precept
Council tax band2023/24 basic chargesIncrease for 2024/25 (1.99%)Cumulative ASC preceptTotal ASC precept on your 2024/25 bill
A£1,096.62£21.82£144.24£166.06
B£1,279.39£25.46£168.30£193.75
C£1,462.16£29.10£192.34£221.43
D£1,644.93£32.73£216.37£249.10
E£2,010.47£40.01£264.46£304.46
F£2,376.01£47.28£312.54£359.82
G£2,741.55£54.56£360.63£415.18
H£3,289.86£65.47£432.75£498.21
 

These figures may be subject to rounding. 

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
ParishParish precept 2023/24Parish precept 2024/25Parish band D council tax 2024/25
Aberford and District£23,000£23,000£29.50
Allerton Bywater£70,000£79,500£54.21
Alwoodley£51,009£51,000£14.00
Arthington£2,750£3,000£10.15
Bardsey cum Rigton£40,050£42,440£37.08
Barwick in Elmet and Scholes£43,388£46,859£23.41
Boston Spa£60,413£74,150£37.26
Bramham cum Oglethorpe£29,561£31,039£41.84
Bramhope and Carlton£64,850£66,700£30.49
Clifford£38,700£40,635£47.83
Collingham with Linton£50,000£50,000£28.48
Drighlington£52,998£75,000£36.11
East Keswick£20,647£21,679£36.72
Gildersome£24,950£25,449£13.62
Great and Little Preston£28,050£29,500£48.12
Harewood£20,004£20,504£11.06
Horsforth£126,035£144,900£19.33
Kippax£114,948£136,751£44.16
Ledsham£6,229£6,589£65.37
Micklefield£78,170£88,868£86.23
Morley£198,000£220,000£19.23
Otley£462,585£487,000£95.61
Pool in Wharfedale£53,000£58,000£59.85
Rawdon£42,430£42,600£15.29
Scarcroft£27,687£29,039£31.45
Shadwell£40,170£47,000£48.50
Swillington£31,110£34,135£35.95
Thorner£29,290£30,720£41.23
Thorp Arch£12,100£20,000£39.37
Walton£7,100£7,368£62.55
Wetherby£540,000£540,000£107.00
 

Precepts shown are rounded to the nearest pound. 


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 contact the council’s Parish Liaison Officer on 0113 535 1239.

If you want to know more

You can find more information, including details of the annual Statement of Accounts, our Budget and Best Council Plan, our Capital Programme and other Strategic and Business Plans within our Your council section.

You can also ask for paper copies by writing to:

Leeds City Council
Strategy and Resources - Financial Services
Civic Hall
Leeds
LS1 1JF



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