Your Council Tax Information 2023-24

How we calculate your Council Tax

Following more than a decade of austerity due to reduced government funding, Redbridge Council has once again been given no option but to increase council tax to make up for the gap in government funding.

This year's financial package received from government assumed that councils will increase council tax and apply a social care precept to make up for the gap in government funding for general services and social care. This year’s council tax increase includes the maximum 2.99% uplift in the 'general' council tax element and a further 2.00% rise in the ring-fenced adult social care precept.

Overall, the Council Tax for Redbridge in 2023/24 at band D increased by £111.81 which equates to an increase of 6% approximately £2.15 per week.

The total Band D Council Tax including the GLA element is £1,975.75 and is made up as follows:

	Redbridge £	GLA £	Total £
Total Council Tax 2022/23	1,468.35	395.59	1,863.94
Increase in Redbridge Council Tax 2.99%	43.90		43.90
Increase in Adult Social Care Precept 2.00%	29.36		29.36
Greater London Authority Element 9.7%		38.55	38.55
Total Increase in Council Tax 2023/24	73.26	38.55	111.81
Total Council Tax 2023/24	1,541.61	434.14	1,975.75

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 It was originally made in respect of the financial years up to and including 2019/20.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.

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:

How your money is spent

The table below shows how we planned to spend your money in 2022/23, how we plan to spend it in 2023/24 and how much the resulting Council Tax is.

2022/23 * £m	How your money is spent	2023/24 £m
361.4	Children's Services	382.1
112.6	Adult Social Care Services	115.4
11.8	Leisure Services	8.5
43.5	Environmental Services & Highways (Civic Pride)	43.4
15.3	Regeneration & Property	18.1
44.7	Housing	43.9
163.2	Customer Care & Benefits including Concessionary Travel	162.7
3.9	Corporate Services	4.0
756.4	Gross Expenditure on General Fund Services	778.1
32.0	Housing Revenue Account (HRA)	33.7
21.9	Capital Financing	18.9
26.6	Unallocated Costs & Contingencies	46.3
19.7	Levies	19.6
856.6	Total Gross Expenditure including (HRA)	896.6
(143.3)	Rent, Fees & Charges and Other Income	(148.3)
(581.5)	Grants, Subsidies & Business Rates	(611.4)
1.6	Collection Fund Surplus	2.6
133.4	Council Tax Requirement	139.5
	2022-23 services figures adjusted for allocations from Unallocated Costs & Contingencies during the year

Changes in Spending	£m
Council Tax Requirement 2022/23	133.4
Spending Changes
Growth for Existing Services and New Initiatives	21.8
New Savings	(17.2)
Levies	(0.1)
Capital Financing	(3.0)
Inflation / Contingencies	19.5
Funding Changes
Movement in Reserves	(2.6)
Collection Fund Deficit	1.0
Government Grants / Business Rates	(13.3)
Council Tax Requirement 2023/24	139.5

What else does your council tax pay for

East London Waste Authority (ELWA)

ELWA 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 by Renewi plc. ELWA receives funding support via the government’s Private Finance Initiative.

Budget 2023/24

ELWA’s total levy requirement is £72.846m (2022/23: £72.350m). The 2023/24 budget includes a significant inflationary increase in contract costs. This is offset by a decrease in the total waste tonnage and a reduction in capital financing costs (both relative to the 2022/23 budget) and the forecast 2022/23 budget surplus. Further information can be found on the East London Waste website. The increase for the London Borough of Redbridge is 1.16%.

The major part of the ELWA Levy is apportioned on the basis of relative amounts of household waste delivered to ELWA 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 2023/24 is £19.168m (2022/23: £18.949m).

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 the Greater London Council (GLC), the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) and the London Residuary Body (LRB).

For 2023/24, 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 the percentage change on the previous year.

	£m	Change in %
Inner London	£7.000	-46%
Greater London	£1.000	-90%
Total	£8.000	-66%

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2023/24 is £0.029m (£0.305m for 2022/23). The reduction in the levy is as a result of the revaluation of the residual liability.

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 9% 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 2023/24	2022/23 £m	2023/24 £m
Authority Operating Expenditure	15.1	15.5
Authority Operating Income	(7.0)	(7.3)
Net Service Operating Costs	8.1	8.2
Financing Costs - Debt servicing/repayments - Capital investment	0.5 1.3	2.0 0.9
Total Net Expenditure	9.9	11.1
Net use of Reserves	(0.1)	(0.5)
Total Levy	(9.8)	(10.6)

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2023/24 is £0.230m (£0.215m for 2022/23).

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	5.214m	5.297m
	2022/23 £m	2023/24 £m
Gross expenditure	109.376	139.806
Levies Raised	12.282	12.526

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 £12.282m in 2022/23 to £12.526m in 2023/24.

Greater London Authority (GLA)

Introduction

The Mayor of London’s budget for the 2023-24 financial year sets out his priorities to support London’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to tackle the huge social, health and economic inequalities which it has exposed and exacerbated – inequalities which have become even more apparent as a result of the current cost of living crisis. It supports job creation and London’s business community, our city’s future growth and economic success and the Mayor’s vision to rebuild London as a greener, cleaner and safer city with stronger and more cohesive communities.

This year’s budget will provide resources to improve the key public services Londoners need. This includes delivering more genuinely affordable homes, funding to maintain the capital’s transport services and tackling toxic air pollution and the climate emergency. The budget also provides resources to support jobs and growth, fund skills and retraining programmes, help rough sleepers, invest in services for children and young people and make London a fairer and cleaner place for everyone to live. Moreover, it prioritises resources for the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade to keep Londoners safe, including violence reduction initiatives, support for victims of crime, recruitment drives for additional frontline officers and projects to divert vulnerable young people away from the criminal justice system. The Mayor is also responding to the cost of living crisis by providing £130 million of new funding to ensure all primary school pupils can receive free school meals in the 2023-24 school year.

In light of the significant reductions in fares revenue since the pandemic, it has been necessary to provide additional resources through local taxation income to maintain London’s transport system including investing in preserving the bus network. However, this budget remains focused on delivering a swift and sustainable economic recovery across the capital as well as building the better, brighter, fairer future all Londoners want and deserve.

Council tax for GLA services

The GLA’s share of the council tax for a typical Band D property has been increased by £38.55 (or 74p per week) to £434.14. The additional income raised will fund the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade and will also go towards ensuring existing public transport services in London can be maintained, meeting requirements set by the government in funding arrangements. Council taxpayers in the City of London, which has its own police force, will pay £142.01.

Council Tax	2022/23 £	Change £	2023/24 £
MOPAC (Metropolitan Police)	277.13	15.00	292.13
LFC (London Fire Brigade)	58.80	3.68	62.48
GLA	22.57	(0.13)	22.44
TfL (Transport)	37.09	20.00	57.09
Total	395.59	38.55	434.14

Investing in frontline services

This budget will enable the Mayor to fulfil his key priorities for London. These include:

Ensuring the Metropolitan Police has the resources it needs to tackle violent crime – since 2019 the Mayor has funded 1,300 additional police officer posts from locally raised council tax and business rates revenues – while seeking to increase trust and confidence amongst Londoners in the police service. His precept increase for 2023-24 will also be used to fund the recruitment of an additional 500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).
Tackling the underlying causes of crime through the rollout of funding to support disadvantaged young Londoners to access positive opportunities and constructive activities that allow them to make the most of their potential, as well as resources for new violence reduction initiatives.
Protecting vulnerable children and women at risk of abuse and domestic violence.
Providing enough resources to the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to ensure that first and second fire engines arrive at emergency incidents within 10 minutes on at least 90 per cent of occasions and 12 minutes on at least 95 per cent of occasions respectively, after being dispatched. The Mayor is also providing resources to rollout a transformation programme so that the LFB can implement the recommendations of the Grenfell fire inquiry. The London Fire Commissioner, with the full support of the Mayor, is also committed to implementing the deep-rooted reform needed to the culture and systems within the LFB.
Working with London boroughs to maintain existing concessionary travel and assisted door to door transport schemes. This includes, for example, maintaining free bus and tram travel for under 18s as well as free off-peak travel across the network for older Londoners, the disabled, armed forces personnel in uniform and eligible armed services veterans and protecting the Taxicard and Dial a Ride schemes.
Continuing the Hopper bus fare, which makes transport more affordable for millions of Londoners.
Completing the final stages to deliver the full operation of and timetable for the Elizabeth line by no later than May 2023. The line has increased central London’s rail capacity by ten per cent and saw over 100 million passenger journeys during its first eight months. This follows on from the opening of Northern line extension to Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station in September 2021.
Continuing to tackle London’s housing crisis, by investing £6.9 billion to allow 116,000 affordable home starts within London by the end of 2023 year and an additional 165,000 affordable homes starts by 2026, as well as allocating resources to tackle homelessness and reduce rough sleeping.
Tackling the climate emergency including creating a new £134 million Environmental Improvement fund to help deliver the Mayor’s target for London to be carbon net zero by 2030. The Mayor is also expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide to tackle air pollution, supported by a £110 million vehicle scrappage scheme for small businesses and Londoners in receipt of low income and disability benefits to help them switch to cleaner vehicles or retrofit their existing ones.
Investing in projects to enable more walking and cycling across London.
Funding projects to bring Londoners together, promote arts, sports and culture, help tackle inequality and improve the environment.

Summary of GLA budget

The GLA’s planned gross expenditure is higher this year. This reflects the additional resources the Mayor is investing in policing, the fire brigade and transport services. Overall the council tax requirement has increased because of the extra resources for the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade and to secure funding to maintain existing transport services including buses and the tube network. There has been a 1.6 per cent increase in London’s residential property taxbase. Find out more about our budget at: www.london.gov.uk/budget.

How the GLA budget is funded	2023/24 £m
Gross Expenditure	16,232.6
Government grants and retained Business Rates	(7,001.9)
Fares, charges and other income	(7,527.2)
Changes in reserves	(350.4)
Amount met by Council Tax payers	1,353.1

Changes in spending	£m
2022/23 Council Tax requirement	1,213.6
Net change in service expenditure and income	(108.4)
Change in use of reserves	(278.3)
Government grants and retained business rates	942.8
Other changes	(416.6)
Amount met by Council Tax payers	1,353.1

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