Total Council Tax requirements 2025/26
| Wirral Council | £401,540,887 |
Levies
| Transport | £23,883,885 |
| Waste Authority | £18,865,249 |
| Flood Defence | £196,850 |
| Port Health | £134,733 |
| Sea Fisheries | £100,189 |
| Total for Levies | £43,180,906 |
Precepts
| Police & Crime Commissioner | £27,313,660 |
| Fire & Rescue | £9,423,737 |
| Liverpool City Region Combined Authority | £2,349,815 |
| Total for Precepts | £39,087,212 |
| Total requirement | £483,809,005 |
Less revenue sources
| Business Rates income | (£71,107,905) |
| Business Rates S31 | (£30,686,000) |
| Top Up | (£65,182,327) |
| Social Care Support Grant | (£49,545,095) |
| New Homes Bonus | (£415,839) |
| Capital Receipts | (£2,600,000) |
| Collection Fund (surplus) / deficit | (£2,796,000) |
| Market Sustainability & Improvement | (£7,877,000) |
| Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant | (£2,418,650) |
| Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant | (£973,833) |
| Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging | (£4,561,000) |
| Recovery Grant | (£9,758,226) |
| NIC contributions | (£2,700,604) |
| Total External Support | (£250,622,479) |
| Net Requirement | £233,186,526 |
| Tax Base Band D (equivalent properties) | 97,908.96 |
| Council Tax for Band D | 2,381.66 |
How spending has changed
| Budget Requirement 2024-25 | £399.7 million |
Increased pressures
| Levies and Precepts | £4.21 million |
| Employees | £10.57 million |
| Other Running Costs | £5.80 million |
| Regeneration & Place | £1.83 million |
| Finance and Cross-cutting Efficiencies | £4.31 million |
| Legal & Governance and Corporate Office | £0.79 million |
| Neighbourhoods | £2.09 million |
| Children & Families | £18.98 million |
| Adult Care & Health | £22.02 million |
Savings and Efficiencies
| Neighbourhoods | £1.50 million |
| Regeneration & Place | £2.09 million |
| Children & Families | £7.66 million |
| Adult Care & Health | £10.91 million |
| Finance and Cross-cutting Efficiencies | £3.37 million |
| Budget Requirement 2025-26 | £444.7 million |
How the council spends its own money (in gross terms)
| 2025/26 by area of spend | Amount |
|---|---|
| Corporate | £207.32 million |
| Environment | £143.45 million |
| People | £604.48 million |
| Total | £955.26 million |
| Type of spend in 2025/26 | Amount | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | £26.25 million | 3% |
| Levies | £43.18 million | 5% |
| Employees | £173.78 million | 18% |
| Running Expenses | £712.03 million | 74% |
| Total | £955.26 million | |
General fund expenditure
| 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £m | £m | £m | |
| Gross expenditure | 895.5 | 911.1 | 955.3 |
| Gross income | (168.1) | (175.8) | (165.9) |
| Specific government grants | (360.8) | (335.6) | (344.7) |
| Net operating requirement | 366.6 | 399.7 | 444.7 |
| Use of reserves, capital receipts & general balances | (2.4) | (2.0) | (2.6) |
| Collection Fund (surplus) / deficit | 3.5 | 1.2 | (2.8) |
| Net budget requirement | 367.7 | 398.9 | 439.3 |
Less grants
| 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Rates Top Up | (59.2) | (60.6) | (65.2) |
| Business Rates S31 | (26.6) | (33.1) | (30.7) |
| Social Care Support Grant | (32.2) | (41.9) | (49.5) |
| Market Sustainability & Improvement | (4.2) | (7.9) | (7.9) |
| ASC Discharge Fund | (2.7) | (4.5) | 0.0 |
| New Homes Bonus | (0.4) | (0.1) | (0.4) |
| Services Grant | (3.3) | (0.6) | 0.0 |
| Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant | 0.0 | 0.0 | (2.4) |
| Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant | 0.0 | 0.0 | (1.0) |
| Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging | 0.0 | 0.0 | (4.6) |
| Recovery Grant | 0.0 | 0.0 | (9.8) |
| NIC contributions | 0.0 | 0.0 | (2.7) |
Local taxation
| Business Rates Baseline | (67.2) | (69.0) | (71.1) |
| Council tax requirement | 171.9 | 181.3 | 194.1 |
Add precepts
| Police and Crime Commission | 24.1 | 25.4 | 27.3 |
| Fire and rescue | 8.5 | 8.8 | 9.4 |
| Liverpool City Region Combined Authority | 1.8 | 1.8 | 2.3 |
| Total Council Tax requirement | 206.3 | 217.3 | 233.2 |