HAVE you ever wondered where your council tax gets spent?

Warrington Borough Council has shared figures which show where its revenue funding is spent each year. This pot of money combines council tax and business rates, with council tax equating to around 72 per cent.

The council’s investments – things like Birchwood Park and solar farms – are bought using capital funding, which is a different pot of money from the pot used for day-to-day services. Capital funding can’t be spent on day-to-day services.

Of the money raised from council tax and business rates, the highest amount of money goes towards supporting and caring for older people and adults with special needs – around 44p - followed by services for children and young people who need care and assistance – 23p. Combined, these two areas make up more than 60p of every £1 spent from the money raised by council tax and business rates.

It might be strange to think that most of the money raised through council tax is spent on what many might consider ‘unseen services’ that people only know about if they, or someone they know, are getting this type of support. Caring for vulnerable children who need our help, caring for people with mental health issues and supporting frail people to stay happy and as independent as possible, for example, are what the majority of council tax goes towards.

Waste and recycling is around 8p per £1 spent, alongside 6p for leisure, libraries and recreation, 5p for providing additional support for young people outside of school, 5p for council running costs like IT, financial services and HR, and 4p for maintaining roads and grounds.

To complete the list, 3p is spent on housing the homeless and housing planning, followed by 1p for community safety and 1p for street cleaning. All of the costs combined for things like emptying bins, repairing highways, supporting our libraries, maintaining our parks and fixing street lights are less than the costs of providing care and assistance through the council’s adults and children’s social care services.

The expenditure was determined by calculating the percentage of spend on each service area of the council, out of the total amount the council spent in the 2020/21 financial year.