Your Council Tax explained

Council tax is an annual fee paid to local authorities - like Wigan Council - to help fund local services.

It is just one of the sources of funding for local authorities.

Others include central government grants, fees and charges (such as parking charges or fees for hiring our facilities for weddings or events) and business rates.

Wigan Council provides more than 700 services.

The more well-known of these include social care (for adults and children), schools and education, libraries and waste management.

Less prominent but vitally important functions include registrar services, business support, licensing, planning and pest control.

Council tax is set by the council, within guidelines set by central government, and can vary depending on the valuation of your property and your personal circumstances.

How your Council Tax is spent

It’s important to remember that council tax is only a contribution towards the day to day running costs of delivering our services - it’s not a charge for individual services.

Council tax only contributes towards around 21% of the total amount we’ll spend delivering our services and does not contribute towards any capital investment schemes we deliver.

It costs around £16.1M a week to provide the services you need, with council tax contributing £3.3m towards these costs.

For every pound of your council tax, this is an example of how it would be spent:

42p on Adult Social Care

Including social care, public health, support and safeguarding.

27p on Children and Young People

Including child safeguarding, children’s social care and school support.

4p on Be Well Services

Including leisure centres, parks, wellbeing services, culture.

2p on Economy

Including economic development and growth, skills and enterprise, and housing services including emergency accommodation (excluding Housing Revenue Account) and council property.