Your Council Tax information 2020-21

How we calculate your Council Tax

Before setting the budget, we consider the cost of all the services we want to provide and those we have to provide by law. We receive direct grants from central Government, which fund some of these services. We also generate revenue from services such as planning. Each year we find ways to provide the same services for less money by improving efficiency. Your Council Tax also includes funding for other bodies such as the Greater London Authority (GLA).

The remainder of our budget is funded through Council Tax. The amount of Council Tax you pay relates to the value of your property. There are eight tax bands from A-H.

Redbridge Council has a Council Tax of £1,357.97 at Band D.

This is an increase of 1.99% together with a 2% increase which must be used to fund Adult Social Care. The Secretary of State made an offer to adult social care authorities. (“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.)

The offer was the option of an adult social care authority being able to charge an additional “precept” on its council tax without holding a referendum, to assist the authority in meeting its expenditure on adult social care from the financial year 2016/17. It was originally made in respect of the financial years up to and including 2019/20. If the Secretary of State chooses to renew this offer in respect of a particular financial year, this is subject to the approval of the House of Commons.

The total Band D Council Tax including the GLA element is £1,690.04 and is made up as follows:

Overall, the Council Tax for Redbridge in 2020/21 at band D increased by £58.52 which equates to an increase of 3.9% or approximately £1.22 per week.

 

	Redbridge £	GLA £	Total £
Total Council Tax 2019/20	1,305.86	320.51	1,626.37
Increase in Redbridge Council Tax 1.99%	25.99		25.99
Increase in Adult Social Care Precept 2%	26.12		26.12
Greater London Authority Element 3.6%		11.56	11.56
Total Increase in Council Tax 2020/21	52.11	11.56	63.67
Total Council Tax 2020/21	1,357.97	332.07	1,690.04

 

How we spend our budget

Our budget, which includes Government grants and your Council Tax, is used in the following ways:

• To help deliver frontline services within the Borough
• To fund vital support services to assist in frontline service delivery
• to pay for the services we receive from a number of external bodies

 

Your bill

Visit our Council Tax pages for information on:

• Valuation Bands
• Which properties are exempt
• When can I be offered a discount
• Get the benefits you are entitled to
• How do I pay my council tax

 

How your money is spent

The table below shows how we planned to spend your money in 2019/20, how we plan to spend it in 2020/21 and how much the resulting Council Tax is.

2019/20* £m	How your money is spent	2020/21 £m
317.7	Children's Services	330.8
95.8	Adult Social Care Services	99.6
12.4	Leisure Services	11.9
43.2	Environmental Services &  Highways (Civic Pride)	43.4
13.6	Regeneration & Property	13.7
32.9	Housing	32.3
170.4	Customer Care & Benefits including Concessionary Travel	169.2
17.7	Corporate Services	15.0
703.7	Gross Expenditure on General Fund Services	715.9
27.4	Housing Revenue Account (HRA)	27.4
20.7	Capital Financing	27.5
14.7	Unallocated Costs & Contingencies	22.0
-	Contribution to General Fund Reserves	1.2
18.6	Levies	19.1
785.1	Total Gross Expenditure including HRA	813.1
(118.5)	Rent, Fees & Charges and Other Income	(119.4)
(547.5)	Grants, Subsidies & Business Rates	(565.6)
(1.1)	Collection Fund Surplus	(3.7)
118.0	Council Tax Requirement	124.4

 *Restated for virements to make years comparable

Changes in Spending	£m
Council Tax Requirement 2019/20	118.0
Spending Changes
Growth for Existing Services and New Initiatives	17.9
Efficiencies and Other Savings	(17.4)
Capital Financing	8.0
Inflation / Contingencies	4.3
Funding Changes
Movement in Reserves	1.2
Collection Fund Surplus	(2.6)
Government Grants / Business Rates	(5.1)
Council Tax Requirement 2020/21	124.4

* Restated for inclusion of Housing Revenue Account and budget realignments

What else does your council tax pay for

East London Waste Authority (ELWA)

East London Waste Authority has the statutory responsibility for the disposal of household and commercial waste collected by the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge, and for the provision of Reuse and Recycling Centres in its area.

Waste disposal is carried out under a 25-year Integrated Waste Management Services Contract with Renewi plc (previously Shanks Waste Management Ltd.), supported by funding via the government’s Private Finance Initiative.

Budget 2020/21

ELWA’s total levy requirement is £67.488m (2019/20 £67.488m). Inflationary increases in operational costs and landfill tax, insurance and provision for increases in the amount of waste as the population grows are offset by reduced contributions to reserves for future waste arrangements, resulting in no change to the total levy.  The increase for the London Borough of Redbridge is 2.50%. 

The major part of the ELWA Levy is apportioned on the basis of relative amounts of household waste delivered to it by each of the four constituent London Boroughs, with the remainder apportioned according to their Council Tax Bases.

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2020/21 is £18.350m (2019/20: 17.903m).

London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA)

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) raises a levy each year to meet expenditure on premature retirement compensation and outstanding personnel matters for which LPFA is responsible and cannot charge to the pension fund. These payments relate to former employees of Greater London Council (GLC), the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) and the London Residuary Body (LRB).

For 2020/21, the income to be raised by levies is set out below.

The Greater London levy is payable in all boroughs, the Inner London levy only in Inner London Boroughs (including the City of London).

The figures show the total to be raised and, in brackets, the percentage change on the previous year.

 

	£m	Change in %
Inner London	£13.065	0%
Greater London	£10.318	0%
Total	£23.383	0%

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2020/21 is £0.310m (£0.311m for 2019/20)

LEE VALLEY REGIONAL PARK AUTHORITY

Lee Valley Regional Park is a unique leisure, sports and environmental destination for all residents of London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The 26 mile long, 10,000 acre Park, much of it formerly derelict land, is partly funded by a levy on the council tax. This year there has been a 0% increase in this levy. Find out more about hundreds of great days out, world class sports venues and award winning parklands at www.visitleevalley.org.uk

 

Budget/Levy Changes – 2019/20 to 2020/21	2019/20 £m	2020/21 £m
Authority Operating Expenditure	10.9	15.1
Authority Operating Income	(3.0)	(7.9)
Net Service Operating Costs	7.9	7.2
Financing Costs - Debt servicing/repayments - Capital investment	0.5 1.2	0.9 1.2
Total Net Expenditure	9.6	9.3
Total Levy	(9.6)	(9.6)

 

 The Environment Agency(EA)

The Environment Agency is a levying body for its Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Functions under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and the Environment Agency (Levies) (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.

The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 5,200 kilometres of main river and along tidal and sea defences in the area of the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. Money is spent on the construction of new flood defence schemes, the maintenance of the river system and existing flood defences together with the operation of a flood warning system and management of the risk of coastal erosion. The financial details are:

Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee

Total Council Tax Base	5.085	5.163
	2019/20 £m	2020/21 £m
Gross expenditure	100.146	101.860
Levies Raised	11.577	11.807

The majority of funding for flood defence comes directly from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). However, under the new Partnership Funding rule not all schemes will attract full central funding. To provide local funding for local priorities and contributions for partnership funding the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees recommend through the Environment Agency a local levy. 

A change in the gross budgeted expenditure between years reflects the programme of works for both capital and revenue needed by the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee to which you contribute. The total Local Levy raised by this committee has increased by 1.99%.

The total Local Levy raised has increased from £11.577m in 2019/20 to £11.807m for 2020/21.

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2020/21 is £0.210m (£0.206m for 2019/20).

Greater London Authority (GLA)

Introduction

The Mayor of London’s budget for the 2020/21 financial year is built around his vision of a city where nobody is left behind, and opportunities are open to all. It supports London’s future growth and economic success, building on our city’s thriving economy, extraordinary creativity, tolerance, diversity and openness to the world.

 

This year’s budget will provide resources to improve the key services Londoners need. This includes delivering more genuinely affordable homes, keeping transport fares as low as possible and tackling toxic air pollution and the climate emergency. The budget also provides resources to support jobs and growth, help rough sleepers, invest in youth services and make London a fairer and cleaner place to live. Moreover, it provides extra resources from council tax and business rates for the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade to keep Londoners safe. Over £100m additional funding is being provided by the Mayor to the police, for violence reduction initiatives and to improve opportunities for young Londoners. This will help offset the ongoing impact of the reductions in government funding over the last decade.

Council tax for GLA services

The GLA’s share of the council tax for a typical Band D property has been increased by £11.56 (or 22p per week) to £332.07. The additional income raised will fund the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. Council taxpayers in the City of London, which has its own police force, will pay £79.94.

 

<td">23.38

Council Tax (£)	2019/20	Change	2020/21
MOPAC (Metropolitan Police)	242.13	10.00	252.13
LFC (London Fire Brigade)	53.00	2.28	55.28
GLA	-0.69	22.69
TfL (Transport)	2.00	-0.03	1.97
Total	320.51	11.56	332.07

 

Controlling costs at City Hall and delivering the Mayor’s key priorities

The Mayor’s budget includes significant savings across the GLA Group in 2020/21. This has allowed him to release resources to help meet his key priorities. This includes plans to invest £4.8bn to support starts of 116,000 new affordable homes in London by 2022 and extra resources to tackle homelessness and reduce rough sleeping. The Mayor will also increase investment in green spaces and provide £25m of extra funding to support constructive activities for disadvantaged young Londoners. He has taken steps to improve air quality in London by introducing the Ultra Low Emission Zone in central London which will be expanded to the North and South Circular roads in autumn 2021. An additional £50m has also been allocated to fund a Green New Deal for London to address the climate change emergency. The Mayor is also providing funding for around 1,000 cultural and community events across London and for the planting of thousands more street trees over the next year.

 

The Mayor will also work with London’s business community and key investors to ensure London’s interests are protected following the UK’s departure from the European Union. He will provide funding for new projects to bring communities together, tackle social inequality and boost London’s economy including supporting projects to help over 6,400 small and medium sized businesses.

 

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)

The Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan – a Safer City for Londoners 2017/21 - sets out his strategy for policing and community safety in the city. His key priorities include improving the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), providing a better criminal justice service in London and keeping children and young people safe. He will also provide resources to tackle domestic violence which particularly affects women and invest an extra £34m  on violence reduction initiatives.

 

The MPS must rise to meet these challenges at a time of acute financial pressure. As a result of the reductions in government resources for policing over the last decade, officer numbers fell to the lowest levels in fifteen years, and the MPS has had to close more than 100 police stations and remove 2,800 police support staff and Police Community Support Officer roles in order to protect officer numbers.

 

The Mayor is raising the police element of his council tax precept by £10 for a typical Band D property. He will also maintain an additional £59 million of funding through business rates. In all, through his decisions in this and previous budgets, the Mayor has funded an additional 1,300 officer posts from locally raised revenues.

Transport for London (TfL)

London’s population is forecast to grow by one million in the next decade. TfL is investing to make the transport network more reliable and accessible. The Mayor’s priorities for TfL include:

 

• making transport more affordable. Single bus fares, single pay as you go fares on the Tube and DLR and the charges for the Santander cycle hire scheme have been frozen again in 2020. This will save travellers an estimated £40 million a year;
• maintaining the Bus and Tram one-hour Hopper fare and investing to improve journey times and reliability on the bus network;

• working with London boroughs to maintain existing concessionary travel and assisted door to door transport schemes. This includes providing free 24-hour travel for the over 60s, the disabled, armed forces personnel in uniform and eligible war veterans and protecting the Taxicard and Dial a Ride schemes. Discounts on travelcards are also available for apprentices;

• increasing capacity on the London Underground and rail services and maintaining the Night Tube and Night Overground services;

• extending the Barking Gospel Oak line to Barking Riverside and expanding capacity on the DLR and tram network;
• planning for the Bakerloo line extension to south east London and new river crossings in east London;

• working to complete the Elizabeth line (formerly Crossrail) - which will increase central London’s rail capacity by 10% and the Northern line extension to Nine Elms and Battersea Power station as soon as possible;
• developing plans and securing funding to deliver refurbished trains on the Central Line and a new spacious state of the art fleet on the Piccadilly line;
• introducing an Ultra Low Emission Zone in central London to tackle local air pollution which will be extended to the North and South Circular roads by autumn 2021;
• making public transport more accessible for everyone. By 2024 nearly 40% of tube stations are expected to be step free. All new Elizabeth line stations will also be step free; and
• investing a record £2.3bn by 2024 through his Healthy Streets scheme to fund a range of schemes designed to make walking, cycling and public transport safer, cleaner and more appealing in partnership with London boroughs.

 

London Fire Commissioner (LFC)

The Mayor’s funding ensures that the London Fire Brigade’s first and second fire engines attending an emergency incident arrive, on average, within six and eight minutes respectively. The Mayor is also providing resources to roll out a transformation programme so that the LFB can implement the recommendations of the Grenfell fire inquiry. This includes investing in the new vehicles and equipment required.

 

London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)

The LLDC was set up to ensure that the city benefits from a long-term legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Mayor’s 2020/21 budget provides funding for the development of a world class cultural and education district, East Bank, in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This is expected to create 3,000 new jobs, attract 1.5m additional visitors and bring £2.8bn of economic value to east London.

 

Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC)

The OPDC has been established to support the creation of 65,000 new jobs and at least 24,000 new homes in west London over the next 20 years. It will build on the regeneration benefits which High Speed 2 (HS2), the Elizabeth line and the Great Western Mainline stations at Old Oak Common are expected to bring locally.

Summary of GLA Group budget

The tables below show where the GLA’s funding comes from and the reasons for the year on year change in the budget. It also explains how the GLA has calculated the sum to be collected from council tax (the council tax requirement).

 

How the GLA budget is funded	2020/21 £m
Gross Expenditure	13,365.9
Government grants and retained Business Rates	(5,486.6)
Fares, charges and other income	(6,787.3)
Use of reserves	(81.1)
Amount met by Council Tax payers	1,010.9

 

Changes in spending	2020/21 £m
2019/20 council tax requirement	960.6
Inflation	244.8
Efficiencies and other savings	(150.8)
New initiatives	512.1
Other changes (for example fares revenue and government grants)	(555.8)
2020/21 Council Tax requirement	1,010.9

 

Find out more about our budget 

Detailed budget by service area

The table below compares the GLA Group’s expenditure on policing, fire and other services (including transport) in 2020/21 with 2019/20.

The GLA’s gross expenditure is higher this year. This is mainly due to the impact of extra investment planned by the Mayor in transport, policing, adult education and the fire service as well as additional business rates receipts being paid over to the Government to support local services elsewhere in England. Overall the council tax requirement has increased because of the extra funding for the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. There has also been a 1.6% increase in London’s residential property taxbase. Find out more about our budget at: www.london.gov.uk/budget (tel: 020 7983 4000).

 

The following tables compare the GLA group’s spending for 2020/21 with last year and set out why it has changed.

The GLA’s gross expenditure is higher this year. This is mainly due to the impact of extra investment planned by the Mayor in transport, policing and the fire service. Overall the council tax requirement has increased because of the extra funding for the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. There has also been a 1.9% increase in London’s residential property taxbase.

Summary of Spending and Income (£ million)	Police (MOPAC)		Fire (LFC)		Other Services (incl. GLA, TfL, LLDC and OPDC)		GLA Group Total
(figures may not sum exactly due to rounding)	2019/20	2020/21	2019/20	2020/21	2019/20	2020/21	2019/20	2020/21
Gross expenditure	3,556.7	3,885.3	450.3	489.5	8,225.6	8,991.1	12,232.6	13,365.9
Government grants and business rates	(2,656.4)	(2,786.3)	(245.7)	(266.1)	(1,852.4)	(2,434.1)	(4,754.5)	(5,486.6)
Other income (incl. fares and charges)	(278.5)	(280.0)	(38.3)	(39.8)	(6,205.3)	(6,467.5)	(6,522.1)	(6,787.3)
Net expenditure	621.8	819.0	166.3	183.6	167.9	89.5	956.0	1,092.0
Change to level of reserves	103.4	(51.9)	(7.1)	(15.0)	(91.7)	(14.2)	4.6	(81.1)
Council tax requirement (income)	725.2	767.1	159.2	168.6	76.2	75.2	960.6	1,010.9