2024 Charges explained and how to access help

• Why the Council agreed to increase Council Tax 
• What you should do if you can't afford to pay
• Paying for the increase for Adult Social Care even if you don't use the service
• Paying the Parish precept
• What Council Tax pays for
• Why Council Tax has increased by more than the amount allowed under the referendum principles
• Why the Council can't make more savings

Why the Council agreed to increase Council Tax 

Each year the Council is faced with significant cost pressures. This is mainly caused by demographic pressures and an increasingly elderly population which puts pressure on our social care costs as well as inflationary cost pressures affecting pay and the cost of goods and services.

In addition to this it has to contend with continuing reductions in Government funding, contributing with an overall budget gap in 2024/25 of £17.80m.The detailed proposals contained in the Budget report close the 2024/25 budget gap of £17.80m via the following measures:

• Additional funding from Council Tax of £6.0m;
• Income generation and Service delivery savings £6.2m;
• Use of reserves from a one-off distribution from Greater Manchester Combined Authority totalling £2.1m as previously agreed in February 2023;
• Use of Budget Support Reserve of £3.5m for the remaining gap.

The additional funding from Council Tax of £6.0m will be achieved by a 4.99% increase in Council Tax and a higher taxbase.

This decision to increase Council Tax has been made following a number of consultations with stakeholders, staff and Scrutiny Members on how to fund the budget gap.

In each of the years between 2016/17 and 2024/25, the Council accepted the offer made by the Secretary of State to charge the additional Adult Social Care Precept:

• 2% for 2016/17
• 3% for 2017/18
• 2% for 2018/19
• 1% for 2019/20
• 2% for 2020/21
• 3% for 2021/22
• 1% for 2022/23
• 2% for 2023/24
• 2% for 2024/25

An accumulated figure of £231.84 is included in the Council Tax figure of £1,970.88 for a Band D equivalent property.

In 2024/25 in addition to the 2.0% (£30.51 for a Band D equivalent property) increase for adult social care the Council has also agreed to increase the ‘basic’ level of Council Tax by 2.99% (£45.61 for a Band D equivalent property). This increase is below the Government’s referendum threshold of 5.0%.

Without these two Council Tax increases additional income and savings of £6.0m would be required to balance the budget on top of the £6.2m already identified. However, it is considered that this would not be achievable without seriously damaging key Council services. 

What you should do if you can't afford to pay

The Council has one of the most generous Council Tax Support schemes in Greater Manchester and pays up to 100% of the Council Tax to anyone who qualifies. To apply for Council Tax Support you should complete the new claim form.

There are also other support schemes and advice available for anyone struggling financially. Details of how to access the schemes and where to contact for advice can be found on the Trafford Directory | Support with money matters page.

Paying for the increase for Adult Social Care even if you don't use the service

Council Tax is not used on its own to pay for particular types of service. It is part of a larger revenue funding stream that includes Business Rates, Government grants and reserves which are all pooled together to pay for the Council’s total net revenue budget of approximately £218m. It therefore helps to pay for all services which councils provide, such as education, refuse collection and street lighting, as well as adult social care.

Paying the Parish precept

As a resident of a Parish that has agreed to set a precept, the additional Council Tax is payable on top of the Council’s main precept including the amounts for the Mayoral Police & Crime Commissioner and the Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services).

• Partington Parish Council has done this for 2024/25 at £65.05 per Band D property (a 25% change since 2023/24)
• Warburton Parish Council has done this for 2024/25 at £50.00 per Band D property (no change since 2023/24)
• Carrington Parish Council has done this for 2024/25 at £30.00 per Band D property (no change since 2023/24)

What Council Tax pays for

More information on how we spend Council Tax. Trafford Council collects the Council Tax on behalf of itself, any Parish Councils as well as the Mayoral Police & Crime Commissioner and the Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services).

The breakdown is as follows:

• 81.3% is collected on behalf of Trafford Council
• 13.0% goes to the Mayoral Police & Crime Commissioner
• 5.7% goes to the Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services)
• An extra amount for your Parish where applicable. 

Council Tax income collected on behalf of the Council helps to fund the following key Trafford services:

Children’s Social Services

• 2,747 children in receipt of children’s safeguarding services
• 469 periods of children being in the care of the local authority
• 409 Child Protection plans

Adult Social Services, including Public Health

• Supports over 4,963 residents with a care package
• Provides over 7,700 services to service users
• Provides over 957,072 hours of external home care support
• Supports over 1,570 residents through Stabilise and Make Safe (reablement)
• Supports over 444 residents through Discharge to Assess (preventing Delayed Transfers from Acute Beds)

Place

• Maintains over 830km of roads and 1,190km of footpaths and cycle lanes and over 61,000 drainage gullies
• Responsible for 22,000 highway trees and 60,000 trees within public parks and open spaces
• Collects approximately 86,000 tonnes of waste from more than 100,000 households, undertaking over 10 million collections every year
• Manages parking restrictions on street and off street across the borough
• Over 200 residents supported with free Data SIM cards through the National Databank initiative
• A laptop loan scheme which has seen almost 647 laptops provided to residents who don’t have access to their own equipment
• Provides housing advice and assistance to over 81,000 households
• Prevents over 347 households from becoming homeless
• Assists over 330 households to find and secure affordable housing through the Council's Housing Register
• Enables the development of 245 new affordable homes across the borough.

Strategy & Resources, Finance & Systems, and Governance & Community Strategy

• The Council’s customer contact service receives approximately 170,000 telephone enquiries a year. In 2023/24, the Contact Centre target is to answer 70 per cent of telephone calls within 30 seconds
• Trafford Libraries welcomed over 495,500 visitors across the borough in 2022/23
• The authority has one crematorium and five cemeteries, and the service undertakes approximately 1,600 cremations and 600 burials per year
• The number of full-time equivalent staff working for us in February 2024 was 3,947.

Why Council Tax has increased by more than the amount allowed under the referendum principles

The Localism Act 2011 abolished Council Tax capping and replaced it with a requirement to hold a Council Tax referendum if an authority wishes to increase its “Relevant Basic Amount of Council Tax” by an amount equal to or exceeding a level set out by the Government.

In relation to the financial year 2024/25 the Secretary of State has determined a referendum principle of 5 per cent (comprising 2 per cent for expenditure on adult social care and 3 per cent for other expenditure), for adult social care authorities, such as Trafford. These authorities may therefore set Council Tax up to this percentage in 2024/25 without holding a referendum.

In 2024/25 in addition to the 2.0% (£30.51 for a Band D equivalent property) increase for adult social care the Council has also agreed to increase the ‘basic’ level of Council Tax by 2.99% (£45.61 for a Band D equivalent property). This increase is below the Government’s referendum threshold of 5%.

Trafford Council also collects precepts on behalf of the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner and the Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services). A separate referendum level is set for Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner at a maximum of £13.00 in 2024/25, however there is no referendum limit for Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services).

A comparison of the components of the Band D Council Tax, showing the movement between 23/24 and 24/25 

Why the Council can't make more savings

By 2023/24 the total value of budget gaps caused by the expenditure pressures and funding reductions since 2010/11 has been £288.25m. There is a further forecast gap for the next three years of £53.09m, of which £17.80m relates to 2024/25, including a recurrent gap of £7.4m from 2023/24 which was met from reserves. The level of savings made so far poses a significant risk for Trafford making future savings and efficiencies difficult.

This has been no easy challenge for a low funded, low tax authority like Trafford. The Council still needs to make difficult decisions about services it provides to balance its decreasing budget.

However, although the Council is committed to delivering value for money services and a low council tax, it is considered that without the Council Tax increase the Council would not be able to achieve a sustainable balanced budget without seriously damaging key Council services.

As can be seen in the table below, if Trafford was to increase council tax by 4.99% in 24/25 whilst all other GM authorities remained static, Trafford would still remain the second lowest. If Trafford raised its Council Tax to the average of GM neighbours (£1,735) this would raise an additional £10.58m per annum.