How your Council Tax is spent

Council tax makes up nearly 80% of the new council’s 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 are 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, transport, libraries, protecting our environment, bin collections and recycling.

When you pay your council tax this money is shared with other local service providers . Each week they spend the following:

• Buckinghamshire Council: £27.35
• Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley Area: £4.16
• Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority: £2.37
• Parish and town councils (average): £1.21

Buckinghamshire Council has a total budget of £440.5M for 2020/21. Here is a breakdown of where it will be spent.

In this year’s budget there is:

• Additional investment in both Adults (£9.5m) and Children’s Social Care (£7.5m) budgets to address the continued increase in demand, cost and the complexity in these services areas.
• £5m to support local projects and support the new council to respond to local need as part of the new Community Boards.

We will be investing over the next 3 years:

• £114m to support Economic Regeneration in Aylesbury and Wycombe;
• £108m on schools, including the new Kingsbrook Secondary School;
• £70m on Strategic Highways maintenance which includes roads, street lighting and bridge maintenance
• £62m on Strategic Infrastructure including schemes in Princes Risborough, Abbey Barn and the Aylesbury Link Roads;
• £36m investment in Leisure Centres primarily linked to the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre (total £36m) where construction commences in 2019/20;
• £19m investment in Waste to support for the fleet to deliver the new Southern Waste Contract and other waste projects;
• £21.3m to support Housing and Homelessness including affordable Housing action plans and disabled facilities grants