Council Tax

(asked on 27th October 2025) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Freedom of Information Act response with reference FOI2025/22431, published on 18 September 2025, what estimates his Department made of the revenue from the (a) town and parish council, (b) police, (c) the Greater London Authority and (d) combined authority precept in gross cash terms (i) in the Spending Review 2025 and (ii) in financial planning since the publication of the Spending Review annually from 2024-25 to 2029-29.


Answered by
Alison McGovern Portrait
Alison McGovern
Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This question was answered on 13th November 2025

The Core Spending Power estimates produced at the 2025 Spending Review use the same methodology as the previous government: starting with Council Tax Requirement (CTR) figures from the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement; forecasting growth in the tax base using the average growth in the tax-setting tax base in each local authority over the previous five-year period (also from published CTR figures); and then assuming councils increase their council tax levels by the maximum allowable before triggering a council tax referendum. This is 5% for social care authorities, the greater of 3% or £5 for shire districts, £5 for fire authorities and £14 for the police element of the Greater London Authority.

These estimates do not therefore include the following precepting authorities: town and parish councils; police and crime commissioner authorities; and the non-fire element of mayoral combined authorities, as they are not in scope of the Local Government Finance Settlement.

Further detail on local government Core Spending Power will be published at the upcoming multi year Local Government Finance Settlement later this year.

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