Your Council Tax and Business Rates for 2023-24 and our performance and spending plans

RBKC’s Budget and Council Tax Requirement for 2023/24

The Council will spend £504 million in 2023/24 on a wide range of day-to-day local services such as:

  • social care
  • the environment
  • leisure facilities
  • highways
  • transport services
  • education and skills development

The charts and table below show the full breakdown of the budget (this excludes Housing Benefit payments and dedicated schools grant which are reimbursed by Government). 

  2022-23 2023-24
  Net £000's Spend £000's Income £000's Net £000's
Adult Social Care 38,675 71,463 (33,144) 38,319
Public Health 0 23,271 (23,271) 0
Children Services 42,621 146,718 (99,523) 47,195
Environment and Communities 24,486 99,234 (75,575) 23,658
Housing and Social Investment 10,938 80,331 (54,093) 26,238
Resources and Customer Delivery 31,638 75,141 (51,036) 24,105
Grenfell Recovery 9,503 8,169 0 8,169
Total Service Costs 157,861 504,327 (336,642) 167,684
Levies 9,245 9,824 0 9,824
Corporate items including contingency 19,983 13,219 0 13,220
Capital charges, Interest and investment income (4,798) 4,459 (12,795) (8,336)
Transfers  to/from Reserves (8,231) 8,671 (5,669) 3,002
Budget Requirement 174,058 540,500 (355,106) 185,394
Social Care Grant and New Homes Bonus (9,168) 0 (8,544) (8,544)
Retained Business Rates (includes Revenue Support Grant) (64,280) 0 (68,555) (68,555)
Collection Fund Adjustment (413) 0 852 852
New and additional grants (4,220) 0 (10,617) (10,617)
Total external funding (78,081) 0 (86,864) (86,864)
Council Tax Requirement 95, 977     98,530
Council Taxbase 97,280     97,732
Council Tax per Band D without Garden Sqaures levies £968.88     £988.26
Greater London Authority Precept £395.59     £434.14
Total Band D Council Tax £1,364.47     £1,422.40
         
Council Tax per Band D with Garden Square levies £986.61     £1,008.15
Greater London Authority Precept £395.59     £434.14
Total Band D Council Tax £1,382.20     £1,442.29

The Council Tax requirement

The Council Tax requirement after taking into account all income and Government funding is £98.5 million. This is an increase of £2.6 million from 2022/23 broken down as follows:

Budget Change  £000's
Social Care Pressures and Contract Inflation 6,322
Provision for (non-social care) Contract Inflation 5,343
Provision for pay inflation 2023/24 4,322
Provision for extra pay award in 2022-23 5,033
Provision for energy inflation 2,756
Increased investment income and reduced borrowing costs due to higher interest rate environment and capital programme review (5,920)
Increase in External Funding (8,095)
Service Growth Pressures 6,669
Service Savings (11,851)
Corporate Budget Reductions (1,750)
Reduction in Collection Fund Deficit (688)
Other 411
Total Change funded by increase in Council Tax income 2,552

What the Council Spends on

The chart below shows how each £100 of Council Tax is spent:

An infographic showing how each £100 of Council Tax is spent. The spending is Children’s Services £27, Adult Social Care £24, Housing and Social Investment £16, Resources and Corporate Services £13, Environment & Communities £11, London-wide payment and levies £6, contingency for future risk management £2, and Grenfell recovery £1. The Council Tax areas are presented as eight piles of pound coins stacked vertically with the amount shown at the bottom with a different colour for each source of funding.

How is it paid for?

Council Tax is just one source of the Council’s income. The chart below shows sources of funding per £100 of income: 

An infographic that shows the sources of funding per £100 of income. The sources of funding are Governments and other Grants £30, Council Tax £15, Dedicated School Grant £12, Business Rates and Revenue Support Grant £11, Fees and charges £10, Parking Income £8, Rental income £7, Other income £7. The sources of funding are presented as eight piles of pound coins stacked vertically with the amount shown at the bottom with a different colour for each source of funding.

Capital Expenditure – Investment into the borough’s homes, roads, schools, leisure facilities.

An infographic that shows capital expenditure by theme. Themes are housing – new homes and temporary accommodation £59,929. Schools, £28, 074. Other property, £4,489. Information Technology, £8,736. Highways, £2,811. Environment, £4,598. Early Years, £1,820. Parks, £2,620. Libraries, £1,195. Adult Social Care, £1,060. Other, 655. The total capital expenditure is £115,987.
An infographic which shows Capital Funding for 2023 to 2024 split into funding source areas. The funding sources are £91,118 in Borrowing, £22,115 in Capital Grants and Contributions, £1,871 in Revenue Contribution to Capital Outlay, and £882 in Earmarked Reserves. The total funding sources are £115,987. The Capital Funding image has four rows from the highest figure which is borrowing, £91,118 to the lowest figure which is Earmarked Reserves, £882.

 

Looking beyond 2023/24

The Council has set a balanced budget for the 2023/24 financial year, however there are many challenges ahead. The forecasted budget gap is set to reach between £20m and £30m over the three years from 2024/25 depending on the future of Government grants and funding. Further details on how the Council is addressing these challenges, our pressures and risks over the next few years are set out in the budget report. 

Last updated: 13 March 2023