One of the roles of Surrey Heath Borough Council (SHBC) is to collect Council Tax. But they don’t keep it all, in fact they only keep 11%. When you consider that collecting Council Tax itself costs money, SHBC get to keep even less. In 2021-22, £263,000 was allocated for the costs of collecting Council Tax, more than 2% of the SHBC Budget.
So what does SHBC do with the money it is left with, and what happens to the other 89%?
The diagram below may help:
It shows how your Council Tax bill of £2,071, for a Band D house in Frimley Green, breaks down. These are the figures for 2021-22; I will update for 2022-23 when the figures are available.
Of the £39.83 a week, SHBC keep £4.28. The vast majority goes to Surrey County Council (SCC). Surrey Children’s Services, for example, costs you £5.87 a week, 37% more than the total that SHBC keep.
With the £4.38 a week, SHBC has to collect our bins, clean our streets, look after our parks, manage planning applications, enforce planning decisions, clear fly-tipping, manage affordable and social housing, do food safety inspections, run trading standards, fund Citizens Advice Bureau, hold elections, catch stay dogs, and more.
For 2022-23 I’ll provide a more detailed breakdown of how your Council Tax is allocated to these services.
Any questions or comments welcome: Contact me.
Stuart Black, January 2022.
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