Council Tax - How Council Tax Is Spent

How Council Tax Is Spent

Further information: Local government in England, Local government in Wales, and Local government in Scotland

Although it is the only tax which is set by local government, the Council Tax contributes only a small proportion (25%, on average) of local government revenue. The majority comes from central government grants and from business rates which are collected centrally and redistributed to local authorities.

Local government provide services such as police, fire, recycling, refuse collection and removal, schools, leisure centres, park and ride schemes, parks and open spaces, street cleaning, subsidising of public transport, tourism, museums, social housing grants, housing and council tax benefits, environmental health and food safety in pubs, restaurants and shops, planning services, support for voluntary groups, meals on wheels, facilities for young people, adapting homes for disabled people, play centres for children, cctv installation, sports facilities, issuing taxi licences, flood defences, and many others.

A significant proportion of local government services are stipulated by central government in the form of statutory provision. Local councils are obliged by law to provide these services. The remainder of services are discretionary and are determined by the local council.

Read more about this topic:  Council Tax

Famous quotes containing the words council, tax and/or spent:

    “I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.”
    —Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    “Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
    Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
    I tax you not, you elements, with unkindness;
    I never gave you kingdom, called you children.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Their holders have always seemed to me like a woman who should undertake at a state fair to run a sewing machine, under pretense of advertising it, while she had never spent an hour in learning its use.”
    —Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)