How we spend your money

Message from Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council

In these challenging times, your council remains by your side every step of the way.

As we all continue to stare down the cost-of-living crisis, we must be realistic about the journey ahead. Like you, the council is paying more for less, and we are seeing a huge surge in demand for the support and services we provide.

Brent increased the supply of new homes more than anywhere else in the country in the last financial year. Yet this record has not kept pace with the tsunami of demand for new homes, with hundreds of new families facing homelessness each week.

This all comes on the back of a decade of central Government funding cuts that have already pushed our finances to the brink. We have successfully balanced our budget with £210m of cuts over the last 13 years – but we are quickly running out of options.

However, challenges can come with opportunities. We are doing all in our power to find ways of making the money we do have go as far as possible.

We will continue to prioritise the most vulnerable in our community, including help and support with food, fuel and finances, and protect the essential services people depend on as much as possible.
We will continue to build the homes we know families desperately need, collect your rubbish and keep streets clean. We will continue to give children and young people the best start in life and help everyone live well and age well.

We are committed to reducing the number of empty properties in Brent. We can help owners bring these properties back into residential use. For more information email: empty.property@brent.gov.uk Actions like these will help us all weather the storm ahead together.

To enable us to maintain a balanced budget and achieve these ambitions, we have made the difficult decision to increase council tax by 4.99%, with 2% ringfenced to support residents with adult social care needs.

This is not a decision the council has taken lightly, especially as we know how stretched people’s budgets are. Every penny will be used to provide the best possible services we can. We will continue to invest in one of the most generous council tax support schemes in London – providing £34m of support to more than 26,000 households.

This year another £1m will go towards helping those struggling with bills or paying for essentials through the Resident Support Fund.

Find out more about these and more on our Cost of Living support pages

Despite these challenges, the future is bright for Brent. We exist to serve you, and we will continue to work tirelessly to move Brent forward together while leaving no one behind.

The Brent Borough Plan, drawn up in collaboration with local people, sets our priorities from now until 2027. This year, as always, we will spend every penny we have to deliver these priorities and provide the best possible services we can, including:

Prosperity and Stability in Brent

£31.4m towards delivering 1,700 new safe and secure homes by 2028.
£10.4m raising standards for private renters.
£1m to help residents cope with rising costs and tackling fuel and food poverty.
£34m in council tax relief for 26,000 households across the borough.
£500k connecting people with new jobs through Brent Works.
£2.9m giving people of all ages more opportunities to develop their skills through Brent Start.

Thriving Communities

£3m on Brent’s Library, Arts and Heritage service, welcoming over 1m visits per year.
£300k on cultural activities to build on the Brent 2020 legacy.
£1.5m on community projects to empower local people and community groups to improve their neighbourhoods.

A Cleaner, Greener Future

£8.2m looking after 315 miles of road and 529 miles of pavement.
£700k on reactive repairs, such as filling around 10,700 potholes.
£2.3m maintaining Brent's 110 award-winning parks and open spaces.
£21.6m collecting rubbish and recycling from 127,974 homes and on keeping our streets clea.

The Best Start in Life

£44m creating 427 new school places for children with special educational needs.
£397m funding Brent’s 97% good and outstanding schools and settings.
£900k looking after eligible children and young people during the school holidays.

A Healthier Brent

£117.9m supporting over 4,600 elderly and vulnerable residents with vital social care support.
£24.3m on improving people’s health and wellbeing, including reducing the causes of it.
£4.2m supporting residents to look after their wellbeing in Brent’s leisure centres.

Your average Council Tax for 2024/25 is £39.15 per week*.

This is how each £1 will be spent on services residents rely on.

• 34p Adult social care
• 24p Children’s social care and early help
• 8p Waste, recycling and the environment
• 5p Housing and neighbourhoods (based on Band D property)
• 3p Customer services
• 1p Communities and tackling poverty
• 2p Culture, leisure and parks
• 23p The Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and other Mayor of London Services. 

Each year, Brent Council sets council tax to help pay for important local services including education, libraries, rubbish and recycling, roads and social care.

The bill also includes a separate portion set by the Mayor of London which pays for the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and other Mayor of London services.

Calculating Council Tax

This year, Brent Council is increasing council tax by 4.99%. This includes 2% which goes towards the cost of caring for vulnerable adults in the borough. The Mayor of London is also increasing his portion by 8.6%. Overall, your total bill will increase by 5.8%.

What are the valuation bands?

The bands and charges for 2024-25 are shown below.

How much Council Tax will you pay?

You can see what band your property is in and the amount of Council Tax you need to pay in My Account.

You can contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) if you have any enquiries about your Council Tax band or Business Rates valuation.

The following tables show the movement between Brent Council’s Council Tax Requirement* and Gross Expenditure** for 2023/24 and 2024/25.

*Calculated in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended.

**Calculated in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 2 Part 2 of the Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2011 as amended.

Council Tax requirement

Gross expenditure

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 Mayor of London’s budget for the 2024-25 financial year sets out his priorities, including supporting Londoners through the current cost-of-living crisis. The budget also supports job creation and London’s business community, our city’s future growth and economic success and the Mayor’s work to continue building a safer, fairer and greener London for everyone.

This year’s budget will provide resources to improve the key public services Londoners need and help address the cost-of-living crisis. This includes extending the Mayor’s universal free school meals programme for all state primary school children for a further academic year until at least July 2025, freezing TfL pay as you go and other non-government regulated fares for the next twelve months and delivering more genuinely affordable homes. The budget also provides resources to support jobs and growth, fund skills and retraining programmes, help rough sleepers off the streets, invest in services for children and young people and make London a fairer and greener place to live. Moreover, it prioritises resources for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and London Fire Brigade (LFB) to keep Londoners safe, including violence reduction initiatives, support for victims of crime, funding to maintain frontline officer numbers, continued reform of the MPS and the delivery of projects to divert vulnerable young people away from gangs and violence.

In light of the conditions imposed as a result of government funding deals, it has been necessary to provide additional resources through local taxation income, including council tax, to maintain London’s transport system and preserve and expand the bus network.

Council tax for GLA services

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) share of the council tax for a typical Band D property has been increased by £37.26 (or 72p per week) to £471.40. The additional income from this increase in council tax will fund the MPS and the LFB, and will also go towards ensuring eansport services in London can be maintained, meeting requirements set by the government in funding agreements. Council taxpayers in the City of London, which has its own police force, will pay £166.27.

Investing in frontline services

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

• Freezing TfL fares (excluding central government regulated fares such as travelcards) in 2024 with off-peak fares being introduced on Fridays all day for an initial three month trial period between March and May 2024.
• 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 (supplemented by free travel before 9am on Fridays for those aged 60+ for an initial three month trial period from March to May 2024), the disabled, armed forces personnel in uniform and eligible armed services veterans and protecting the Taxicard and Dial-a-Ride schemes.
• Providing £140 million to continue to fund universal free school meals for London’s estimated 287,000 state primary school children for a second academic year until at least July 2025. This will save families up to £1,000 over two years per child as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit
• Ensuring the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has the resources it needs to tackle violent crime by investing an additional £151 million in 2024-25 in policing and crime prevention. This includes investing an extra £6.5 million in London’s Violence Reduction Unit to divert young people away from gangs and crime. More generally an additional £189 million is being invested to deliver reform of the MPS, including through the New Met for London programme to increase trust and confidence amongst Londoners in their police service
• Funding 1,300 additional police officer posts and 500 extra Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) from locally raised council tax and business rates revenues. This budget will see MPS receiving a record £1.143 billion in funding from the GLA
• 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 resources to rollout a transformation programme so that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) can implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and other key improvements. The London Fire Commissioner, with the full support of the Mayor, is also committed to continuing to implement the deep-rooted reform needed to the culture and systems within the LFB
• Continuing the Hopper bus fare, which makes transport more affordable for millions of Londoners
• Delivering the Elizabeth line on its full timetable and route. The Elizabeth line has increased central London’s rail capacity by ten per cent and is forecast to see upwards of 200 million passenger journeys per annum making it the busiest rail line in the UK. 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 £6.4 billion over the next five years to increase the number of Londoners who have a safe, decent and affordable home as well as allocating resources to tackle homelessness and reduce rough sleeping
• Tackling the climate emergency following the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide to tackle air pollution, which has been supported by a £210 million vehicle scrappage scheme for small businesses and Londoners to help them switch to cleaner vehicles or retrofit their existing ones
• Investing in projects to enable more walking and cycling across London and
• Funding projects to bring Londoners together, promote arts, sports and culture, help tackle inequality and improve the environment.

Summary of the GLA Group budget

The following tables compare the GLA Group’s planned spending for 2024-25 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, the fire brigade and transport services. Overall, the council tax requirement has increased because of the extra resources for the MPS and the LFB and to secure funding to maintain existing transport services including buses and the tube network. There has been a 1.4 per cent increase in London’s residential property taxbase. Find out more about the GLA budget.