Council Tax helps to pay for local services provided by Plymouth City Council, the police and fire and rescue. We play a key part in making sure the day-to-day life of the city runs smoothly. We provide support for the more vulnerable and with our partners, make long-term plans to improve life for everyone who lives here.
We have over 300 services with staff that work to keep our streets clean, keep us all on the move, enable our children to achieve and enjoy their schools as well as be on hand for key moments of people's lives, such as weddings and registering births. Your Council Tax pays for a huge range of these services.
See our annual Statement of accounts.
Council budget information for 2024 to 2025
How our revenue budget is spent
| Adult social care and homelessness | £96.3m (44%) |
| Children’s services | £63.5m (29%) |
| Place – economic development, planning, housing investment, streets and highways |
£27.9m (13%) |
| Running the Council – libraries, finance and tax and benefit administration, facilities and leisure services |
£30.7m (14%) |
| Total revenue budget (2023/24) | £218.4m |
How we are funded
- Other grants: 42%
- Council Tax: 23%
- Central government core grants (including retained Business Rates): 15%
- Other Income: 10%
- Charges for Services: 10%
| Department | Budget |
|---|---|
| Executive Office | £6,556,000 |
| People | £108,551,000 |
| Children | £74,476,000 |
| Place | £30,819,000 |
| Public Health | £2,629,000 |
| Customer and Corporate Services | £36,303,000 |
| Corporate Items | -£17,712,000 |
| Total budget requirement | £241,622,000 |
For every £100 we receive to fund services, we spend
- £43 caring for adults who need our help
- £28 helping children and young people get the best start in life
- £9 running the Council and elections
- £7 collecting rubbish and looking after our parks and green spaces
- £6 helping people keep well and stay healthy
- £3 maintaining roads and street lighting and on public transport
- £2 growing our economy and providing culture and leisure activities
- £1 planning and building new homes for Plymouth people
- £1 running libraries and registration and trading standards services
| Gross Expenditure | £406,500,000 |
| Central Government Funding | -£230,100,000 |
| Other Costs (-income) | -£1,400,000 |
| Council Tax requirement | £175,000,000 |
| Gross Expenditure | £108,000,000 |
| Funding other than Council Tax | -£15,400,000 |
| Central Government Funding | -£16,600,000 |
| Other Costs (-income) | -£11,700,000 |
| Council Tax requirement | £64,300,000 |
Bands and charges
| Band | Total bill 2024/25 | Police | Fire | Council |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,476.58 | £183.00 | £66.45 | £1,227.13 |
| B | £1,722.68 | £213.50 | £77.53 | £1,431.65 |
| C | £1,968.77 | £244.00 | £88.60 | £1,636.17 |
| D | £2,214.87 | £274.50 | £99.68 | £1,840.69 |
| E | £2,707.06 | £335.50 | £121.83 | £2,249.73 |
| F | £3,199.25 | £396.50 | £143.98 | £2,658.77 |
| G | £3,691.45 | £457.50 | £166.13 | £3,067.82 |
| H | £4,429.74 | £549.00 | £199.36 | £3,681.38 |
| Band | Value in 1991 | Number of homes | Proportion of Band D |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | 48,099 | 6/9 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | 33,334 | 7/9 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | 23,657 | 8/9 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | 10,286 | 9/9 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | 5,218 | 11/9 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | 1,888 | 13/9 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | 621 | 15/9 |
| H | Over £320,000 | 55 | 18/9 |
Council Tax leaflet 2024
Dear Plymouth resident,
We understand how difficult the cost of living crisis has made life for many families.
Our Cost of Living Plan has tried to provide practical help and advice, whether via our online information hub, helping to provide free welcoming spaces for people to stay warm and meet others, securing funding to support those most in need, running free events or keeping entry free at Mount Wise pools.
Like all councils, we have continued to see big increases in our costs and rising demand for our homelessness and social care services for the elderly, vulnerable adults and children. We spend around 73% of our total revenue budget on these vital services.
With rising costs and less funding from central Government, we have no choice but to increase Council Tax to protect vulnerable residents and ensure that we don’t have to reduce critical services or introduce new charges. It also ensures there is adequate funding available for those services that residents tell us are important, including pothole repairs and cutting grass.
Please be assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to make sure we provide value for money for Plymouth residents and make every pound work for you.
Councillor Tudor Evans OBE
Leader of Plymouth City Council
How your Council Tax helps us deliver for Plymouth
- We provide 300+ services for 265,00 residents
- We prevented or relieved 931 households from homelessness
- There are 512 looked after children
- 3,600 adults receive social care services
- 73,800 tonnes of refuse and recycling are collected from Plymouth homes every year
- We maintain 31,066 street lights
- We look after 873km of roads and 903km of footways and cycle paths
- We look after 950 hectares of open green spaces
- 700,000 people have visited The Box
- We secured more than £100m of investment for Plymouth last year
- 451,640 books and e-books are loaned from our libraries
Building a better Plymouth
We are ambitious for Plymouth and work hard to make our city a great place to grow up and grow old in and to deliver the priorities that residents tell us are important.
The Council Tax you pay contributes to our revenue budget, which enables us to deliver more than 300 services – including collecting bins, cleaning streets, maintaining roads, looking after parks and green spaces, protecting vulnerable children and providing libraries, leisure facilities and car parks.
Other funding for the revenue budget comes from grants and income from fees and charges. We have been very successful in securing grants to invest in delivering initiatives that help improve lives in Plymouth. The following is just a flavour of what we’ve done this year to help deliver our priorities for Plymouth.
Working with the police to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour
- Extended an order to prevent alcohol-related anti-social behaviour
- Opened a new CCTV centre to help keep people safe and tackle crime
- Continued investing in our street marshals to help make nights out safer
Fewer potholes, cleaner, greener streets and transport
- Introduced a new machine to repair potholes quickly and more efficiently
- Secured £1.6 million to protect and enhance bus services
- Installed new bins in the city centre
- Introduced new street sweeping vehicles
- Helped roll out hundreds of Beryl e-bikes
- Installed more electric charging points
Build more homes for social rent and affordable ownership
- Built new homes for sale at Broadland Gardens
- Launched an ambitious new Plan for Homes
- Helped deliver another project to enable veterans to build their own homes
Green investment, jobs, skills and better education
- Secured £11.6m for the Plymouth National Marine Park
- Agreed a land deal to unlock jobs as part of the Freeport tax site
- Secured £20 million for waterfront and port improvements
- Secured funding to help make Plymouth more attractive to shoppers
- Kickstarted the Derriford District Shopping Centre scheme
- Created a new employer hub to help Plymouth businesses thrive
Keeping children, adults and communities safe
- Started recruiting more social workers to protect vulnerable children
- Worked with Plymouth Argyle and partners on a new community hub at Brickfields
- Built new accommodation for care experienced young people
- Launched five new family hubs
- Launched Caring Plymouth
- Progressed plans for a new adult care facility in Central Park
Working with the NHS to provide better access to health, care and dentistry
- Helped secure a new Community Diagnostic Centre for the West End
- Set up a dental task force to tackle the ongoing crisis in dental provision
- Helped ensure children in some primary schools are able to see a dentist
Regenerating the city centre
- Scrapped the previous Armada Way scheme and consulted on a better design
- Cleaned up the city centre
- Got work started again in Old Town Street and New George Street
- Supported the cleaning up of historic buildings such as Pearl Assurance House and The Athenaeum
Download the Council Tax leaflets
Devon and Cornwall police leaflet
How we are funded
- Other grants: 42%
- Council Tax: 24%
- Central government core grants (including retained Business Rates): 14%
- Other Income: 10%
- Charges for Services: 10%
For every £100 we receive to fund services, we spend
- £42 caring for adults who need our help
- £26 helping children and young people get the best start in life
- £10 running the Council and elections
- £7 helping people keep well and stay healthy
- £7 collecting rubbish and looking after our parks and green spaces
- £4 maintaining roads and street lighting and on public transport
- £2 growing our economy and providing culture and leisure activities
- £1 planning and building new homes for Plymouth people
- £1 running libraries and registration and trading standards services
| Band | Total bill 2023/24 | Police | Fire | Council |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,407.71 | £174.37 | £64.53 | £1,168.81 |
| B | £1,642.33 | £203.44 | £75.28 | £1,363.61 |
| C | £1,876.95 | £232.50 | £86.04 | £1,558.41 |
| D | £2,111.56 | £261.56 | £96.79 | £1,753.21 |
| E | £2,580.79 | £319.68 | £118.30 | £2,142.81 |
| F | £3,050.03 | £377.81 | £139.81 | £2,532.41 |
| G | £3,519.27 | £435.93 | £161.32 | £2,922.02 |
| H | £4,223.12 | £523.12 | £193.58 | £3,506.42 |
| Band | Value in 1991 | Number of homes | Proportion of Band D |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | 48,113 | 6/9 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | 33,281 | 7/9 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | 23,611 | 8/9 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | 10,244 | 9/9 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | 5,197 | 11/9 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | 1,869 | 13/9 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | 618 | 15/9 |
| H | Over £320,000 | 55 | 18/9 |
City Council budgets by department
| Department | Budget |
|---|---|
| Executive Office | £5,272,000 |
| People | £98,210,000 |
| Children | £62,010,000 |
| Place | £23,452,000 |
| Public Health | -£1,100,000 |
| Customer and Corporate Services | £44,544,000 |
| Corporate Items | -£13,948,000 |
| Total budget requirement | £218,440,000 |
Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
| Gross Expenditure | £384,400,000 |
| Central Government Funding | -£218,100,000 |
| Other Costs (-income) | -£1,600,000 |
| Council Tax requirement | £164,700,000 |
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority
| Gross Expenditure | £98,300,000 |
| Funding other than Council Tax | -£12,900,000 |
| Central Government Funding | -£16,300,000 |
| Other Costs (-income) | -£7,200,000 |
| Council Tax requirement | £61,900,000 |
Council Tax leaflet 2023
Dear Plymouth Resident,
Few of us have experienced a year like the last one, which has seen national issues impact our daily lives through rising inflation and increases in our fuel and energy bills.
As a council delivering more than 300 local services, we are experiencing the same pressures that households are. Our bills for lighting Plymouth’s streets, car parks and public buildings and for fuelling the vehicles we use for street cleaning and collecting rubbish have seen huge rises.
Like other councils we are also facing a big rise in demand and cost pressures in care services for the elderly and vulnerable children. This is serious as 73% of our total revenue budget is spent on these vital services.
These factors have caused nothing short of a budget emergency. We’ve had to urgently tackle an unprecedented £15.5 million overspend in this year’s budget and address a £37.6 million gap in our budget for 2023/24.
We’ve needed to take firm action to avoid a worse crisis while protecting statutory services that look after the most vulnerable in our community.
We have worked hard to find savings totalling £23 million to help set a balanced budget. Like most other councils we also need to increase Council Tax by 2.99% and levy a two per cent precept specifically to support social care.
As we’ve made these difficult decisions we’ve been keen to listen to Plymouth residents and are grateful to everyone who took the time to give feedback on our proposals during our budget engagement exercise.
It is clear that Plymouth residents want to be assured that we are operating as efficiently as possible and doing everything we can to keep costs down. We will continue to make sure we are providing the best possible value.
I’m pleased that despite the budget challenges we have continued to deliver the priorities for Plymouth. You’ll see evidence of this on the other side of this letter.
While we are by no means out of the woods as far as our budget pressures are concerned, we will continue working hard to unleash Plymouth’s full potential and ensure both the Council and city emerge from the latest economic situation stronger, greener and more resilient for the future.
Richard Bingley, Leader of Plymouth City Council
A few of the things we are delivering for Plymouth
Create jobs and regenerate our city
- Mobilising the Freeport to help create thousands of new jobs
- Creating a new Ports Strategy to maximise the potential of Plymouth’s marine economy
- Delivering major plans to regenerate the area around the railway station
- Creating a new district centre in Derriford with new M&S and Aldi stores
- Bringing new life to the city centre with a range of public realm improvement schemes
- Delivering a successful programme of events including the British Art Show at The Box
Improve transport links
- Introducing Connect Plymouth hubs providing electric bike and car hire across the city
- Installing more electric car charging points across Plymouth
- Completing the Forder Valley Link Road, improving access to the north of the city
- Starting work on the Woolwell to The George scheme, which will help to cut congestion
- Opening new off-road cycle and walking paths around the city
- Helping deliver bus services in Plymouth.
Providing social care for adults and children
- Starting work on a new care facility for adults with physical and learning disabilities
- Opening a short-term care centre for people to stay after leaving hospital
- Working with partners to provide ‘out of hospital’ services such as a Care Hotel
- Providing long-term support for more than 4,700 adults and 2,000 carers
- Providing 490 packages of care for vulnerable children and young people.
Helping deliver hundreds of affordable homes
- Delivering green housing schemes, including affordable homes in Kings Tamerton
- Finishing the first phase of a project helping veterans build affordable homes to rent
- Working with partners on plans for an eco-friendly, affordable neighbourhood in Millbay
- Bringing empty homes back into use.
Make Plymouth safer
- Bringing partners across the city together to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls
- Helping provide a Night Bus so people can get home safely
- Installing new help points and CCTV cameras in key locations
- Working with partners to tackle forced labour, sexual exploitation and child safety online
Caring for Plymouth and tackling climate change
- Delivering a new climate emergency plan for Plymouth
- Enabling a new community-owned solar farm at Chelson Meadow
- Installing heat pumps in buildings and creating a district energy scheme in the city centre
- Making further improvements to Central Park, including new ponds and better drainage
- Developing plans and delivering activities for the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park
- Planting thousands of trees with our partners as part of a new community forest.