How your Council Tax is spent
Council Tax makes up 82% of our external income. We no longer receive any general funding from central government.
Our costs continue to rise due to inflation and we have an increasing demand for services to protect, support and care for our vulnerable adults and children. We're more dependent than ever on the income we receive from Council Tax to deliver the services our residents rely on each day.
Your Council Tax helps pay for vital local services, including:
- housing
- caring for people in need
- roads and transport
- libraries
- protecting our environment
- some waste services (excluding bulky, garden and commercial waste)
- recycling
How the council is funded
Council Tax |
82% |
£377.4m |
Business rates |
13% |
£58.2m |
New Homes Bonus |
1% |
£5.8m |
Other grants |
4% |
£20m |
Who spends your Council Tax
When you pay your Council Tax, this money is shared with other local service providers.
- Buckinghamshire Council
- Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley Area
- Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority
- Parish and town councils
Buckinghamshire Council has a total budget of £461.4m for 2022/23.
Revenue and capital budgets 2022/23
| Portfolio | Main services | Net budget | Percentage of total budget |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Climate Change & Environment |
Environment, Street Cleaning & Waste |
28,611 | 7% |
| Communities |
Community Boards, Localities & Strategic Partnerships |
8,612 | 2% |
|
Culture & Leisure |
Culture, Sport & Leisure |
5,028 | 1% |
|
Education & Children's Services |
Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding, Education and Schools |
88,618 | 21% |
| Finance, Resources, Property & Assets |
Business Operations, Customer Services, Finance, Revenues & Benefits, Human Resources, ICT, Property & Assets |
51,696 | 12% |
|
Health & Wellbeing |
Social Care for Adults & Public Health |
164,421 | 39% |
|
Housing & Homelessness & Regulatory Services |
Homelessness, Housing, Environmental Health & Cemeteries |
6,931 | 2% |
| Leader |
Policy & Communications, Economic Growth & Regeneration |
7,824 | 2% |
|
Planning & Regeneration |
Building Control, Development Management, Planning Enforcement. Strategic Planning |
6,003 | 1% |
| Transport |
Highways, Parking, Transport for Bucks |
55,623 | 13% |
|
Portfolio Budgets total |
423,368 | 100% | |
|
Corporate costs |
Capital Financing, Treasury Management, Corporate Contingency budgets, Other |
44,263 | |
|
Use of / Contributions to Reserves |
(6,223) | ||
|
Net operating Expenditure |
461,408 |
| Portfolio | Expenditure | Percentage of total expenditure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leader | 30,358 | 18.4% | |
|
Children’s Services |
45,120 | 27.3% | |
|
Climate Change & Environment |
12,194 | 7.4% | |
| Communities | 210 | 0.1% | |
|
Culture & Leisure |
6,933 | 4.2% | |
|
Finance, Resources, Property & Assets |
7,404 | 4.5% | |
|
Health & Wellbeing |
N/A | 0% | |
|
Housing, Homelessness & Regulatory |
9,317 | 5.6% | |
|
Planning and Regeneration |
15,411 | 9.3% | |
| Transport | 37,342 | 22.6% | |
| Corporate | 750 | 0.5% | |
|
Capital expenditure |
165,038 | 100% |
In this year’s budget there is additional investment in both Adults (£11.8m) and Children’s Social Care (£3.4m) budgets. This is to address the continued increase in demand, cost and the complexity in these services areas.
We'll be investing over the next 4 years:
- £136m on schools
- £121m on strategic infrastructure and highway projects including Aylesbury Eastern Link Road, Princes Risborough Relief Road and South East Aylesbury Link Road
- £118m on strategic highway maintenance, including £61.6m on the Strategic Highway Maintenance programme, £8.5m for footways, £17.7m for plane & patch. £8.4m for street lighting and £8m for drainage schemes
- £37.9m to support economic regeneration
- £32.8m on climate change and environment, including £12.1m on waste vehicles, £12.7m on household waste and recycling centres and £7.9m on flood management and air quality