How your Council Tax is spent

Guide to Council Tax 2026 to 2027

Guide to Council Tax 2026-27 (PDF 2.25MB)

 

How we calculate your Council Tax 

This year's financial package received from government assumed that councils will increase Council Tax and apply a social care precept by the maximum amount allowable.  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 presented as a single increase of 4.99% on bills. 

Overall, the Council Tax for Redbridge including GLA precept in 2026/27 at band D increased by £104.91 which equates to an increase of 4.8% approximately £2.01 per week. 

The total Band D council tax including the GLA element is £2,294.58 and is made up as follows: 

	Redbridge   £	GLA  £	Total  £
Total council tax 2025/26	1,699.29	490.38	2,189.67
Increase in Redbridge council tax 2.99%	50.80	-	50.80
Increase in Adult Social Care Precept 2.00%	33.98	-	33.98
Greater London Authority Element 4.0%	-	20.13	20.13
Total Increase in Council Tax 2026/27	84.78	20.13	104.91
Total Council Tax 2026/27	1,784.07	510.51	2,294.58

 

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

2025/26 £m	How your money is spent	2026/27 £m
454.1	Children's Services	482.3
146.7	Adult Social Care Services	175.4
11.4	Leisure Services	12.0
58.9	Environmental Services & Highways (Civic Pride)	59.9
12.9	Regeneration & Property	13.0
44.8	Housing	59.7
165.7	Customer Care & Benefits including Concessionary Travel	166.7
9.9	Corporate Services	9.9
904.4	Gross Expenditure on General Fund Services	978.9
43.6	Housing Revenue Account (HRA)	44.5
23.5	Capital Financing	25.2
32.4	Unallocated Costs & Contingencies	24.6
21.7	Levies	21.8
1,025.6	Total Gross Expenditure including (HRA)	1,095.0
(170.7)	Rent, Fees & Charges and Other Income	(167.7)
(695.0)	Grants, Subsidies & Business Rates	(757.7)
(1.3)	Collection Fund Surplus	(1.6)
158.0	Council Tax Requirement	168.0

 

 

Changes in Spending	£m	£m
Council Tax Requirement 2025/26		158.0
Spending Changes
Growth for Existing Services and New Initiatives	53.7
New Savings	(7.4)
Levies, Concessionary Fares and other contributions	1.4
Capital Financing	1.7
Inflation, contingencies and other corporate movements	5.0	54.4
Funding Changes
Movement in Reserves	(2.2)
Collection Fund Surplus	(1.8)
Government Grants / Business Rates	(20.4)
Government Support	(20.0)	(44.4)
Council Tax Requirement 2026/27		168.0

 

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 Biffi (formerly Renewi plc).  ELWA receives funding support via the government’s Private Finance Initiative.  

Budget 2026/27

ELWA’s total levy requirement is £80,985,000 (2025/26: £76,844,000). The 2026/27 budget includes an inflationary increase in contract and operational costs as well as provision for increases in waste tonnages. There has also been a reduction in the level of the packaging extended producer responsibility funding (relative to the 2025/26 budget). This is partially offset by the release of the prior year and 2025/26 forecast budget surpluses. Further information can be found at https://eastlondonwaste.gov.uk/.

The increase for the London Borough of Redbridge is 1.52%.

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 2026/27 is £20,576,000 (2025/26: £20,267,000).

 

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 2026/27, 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.  

	£m
Inner London	7.0
Greater London	1.0
Total	8.0

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2026/27 is £0.029m (£0.029m for 2025/26).  

From 2022 onwards, a portion of the amount previously raised as levies is being paid into the LPFA Pension Fund to address a funding deficit in respect of former GLC, ILEA, and LRB employees. 

 

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 2.25% increase in this levy.

Budget/Levy	2025/26 £m	2026/27 £m
Authority Operating Expenditure	15.6	16.5
Authority Operating Income	(8.0)	(8.5)
Net Service Operating Costs	7.6	8.0
Financing Costs - Debt servicing/repayments  - Capital investment	2.1 1.6	2.0 2.1
Total Net Expenditure	11.3	12.1
Net use of Reserves	(0.0)	(0.6)
Total Levy	(11.3)	(11.5)

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2026/27 is £0.248m (in 2025/26 it was £0.242m). 

 

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 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 £13.030m in 2025/26 to £13.290m in 2026/27)

The Levy on the London Borough of Redbridge for 2026/27 is £0.226m (in 2025/26, it was £0.222m)

 

Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee

	2025/26 £m	2026/27 £m
Total council tax Base	5.453	5.453
Gross expenditure	126.785	126.785
Levies Raised	13.030	13.030

 

Greater London Authority (GLA) 

The Mayor of London’s Budget for 2026-27 sets out how he will fund his plans to continue building a fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London for everyone. It ensures investment to tackle crime, build more affordable homes, reduce street homelessness, improve London’s transport network, provide free school meals to all state primary school children, and keep London as a world-leader in tackling air pollution and the climate crisis. The thread that runs throughout the budget is the Mayor’s desire to provide a helping hand to Londoners to ensure everyone has the chance to reach their potential.

In particular, the Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 prioritises resources to tackle crime and the causes of crime, with a record-breaking £1.26bn investment from City Hall in policing and crime prevention measures.

Increasing council tax to fund the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade

The GLA’s share of council tax for a typical Band D property has been increased by £20.13 – the equivalent of £1.68 a month. The additional income from this increase will help to fund the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) - whose work is overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) - and the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

The Mayor has taken the decision to increase the policing precept part of council tax to support the MPS in conducting a major crack down on phone theft, with targeted action to dismantle phone theft gangs on London’s streets. The additional funding will also be used to ensure London can build on the important progress being made to reduce homicides, knife crime, gun crime, burglary and other key crimes. 

Band D Council Tax (£)	2025/26	Change	2026/27
MOPAC (Metropolitan Police)	319.13	15.00	334.13
LFC (London Fire Brigade)	71.72	5.13	76.85
GLA	22.44	0.00	22.44
Transport for London	77.09	0.00	77.09
Total	490.38	20.13	510.51

 

Investing to build a safer, fairer and greener London for everyone

• Record investment to tackle crime – The Mayor’s top priority is keeping Londoners safe and investment from City Hall has helped to deliver significant progress in reducing key crimes across London over recent years. However, there is still much more to do. That’s why the Mayor is investing a record-breaking £1.26bn from City Hall in policing and crime prevention measures in his 2026-27 budget. This is nearly £100m more than last year’s budget. The funding includes: £4.5m to continue to crack down on and dismantle phone theft gangs on the streets of the capital; a new £2.4m package of support for victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation; an additional £50m to invest in further support for young people, which will help to keep vulnerable young Londoners away from gangs and crime; and an additional £29m to continue tackling violence against women and girls in London.

• Improving London’s transport network – The Mayor is focused on increasing and improving transport services to make London’s transport network better, greener, more accessible and as affordable as possible. The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes investment that will help to: maintain existing concessionary travel and assisted door-to-door transport schemes; roll out new trains on the Piccadilly line; continue to improve accessibility across TfL’s network, increasing the availability of step-free access and toilets; improve the bus network; move forward with plans to deliver key transport projects, including the DLR extension to Thamesmead; and deliver schemes designed to make walking, cycling and public transport safer, cleaner and more appealing.

• Supporting Londoners through the cost-of-living crisis – The Mayor has responded to the cost-of-living challenges facing families in London by providing funding to continue his universal free school meals programme for London’s state primary school children. By July 2026, it is estimated that this programme will have saved London families up to £1,500 per child since its introduction in September 2023.

• Investing in social and affordable homes – Before the pandemic, the Mayor completed more homes in London than at any time since the 1930s and he has taken council housebuilding to its highest level since the 1970s. But there is still a long way to go to fix the housing crisis, with housebuilding currently facing an extremely challenging time in the capital. This is due to a combination of the impact of Brexit, the pandemic, high interest rates and delays caused by the Building Safety Regulator. The Mayor will continue to do everything he can, using his budget for 2026-27 to build more of the safe, decent and affordable homes Londoners need.

• Tackling rough sleeping – The Mayor has made addressing London’s rough sleeping crisis a top priority. Since 2016, he has increased City Hall’s rough sleeping budget more than fivefold and helped more than 20,000 people off London’s streets. The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes an additional £8m to invest in further action to tackle rough sleeping in the capital.

• Supporting Londoners through the AI revolution – The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes a new £20m pot of funding to take forward recommendations from his Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Future of Work Taskforce to embed AI skills in our workforce and equip Londoners with the tools they will need to succeed in a fast-changing environment.

• The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 will also invest in: supporting Londoners to secure better paid jobs; tackling inequality; supporting renters; helping businesses, both large and small; and keeping London as a world-leader in reducing air pollution, cleaning up our rivers and tackling the climate crisis. 

Summary of the GLA Group budget

The following tables compare the GLA Group’s planned spending for 2026/27 with last year and sets out why it has changed.

The GLA’s planned gross expenditure is higher this year. This reflects the additional resources the Mayor is investing in policing and the fire brigade. Overall, the council tax requirement has also increased for this reason. There has been a 1.2% increase in London’s residential property taxbase.

Find out more about our budget at: www.london.gov.uk/budget.

How the GLA’s budget is funded	2026/27 £m
Gross expenditure	19,079.0
Government grants and retained business rates	-8,466.8
Fares, charges and other income	-8,815.1
Change in reserves	-130.1
Amount met by council taxpayers	1,667.0

 

Changes in spending	2026/27 £m
2025-26 council tax requirement	1,581.9
Net change in service expenditure and income	697.9
Change in use of reserves	261.2
Government grants and retained business rates	-874.0
Amount met by council taxpayers	1,667.0