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I don't know the percentages any more but you might well be surprised how little the Council Tax income contributes towards the actual total spend of a council.
These days probably two thirds (maybe more) of the income that Council's spend comes directly from the central Government - the money that we pay in Taxes (Income Tax, VAT, etc).
All Business Rates collected by Council's are given to Central Government - who in turn determine how much of it is given back to the Council's based on some extremely complicated calculations.
As for Council expenditure, again I don't know the current percentages but it used to be something like two thirds of it was spent on education, and a further 20 odd percent on Social Services, the rest being spread across refuse collection and disposal, Highways, Housing, etc, etc.
Probably the biggest problems many councils face is the massive boom in demand for education and social care provision that as been experienced over the last half dozen years or so from the influx of economic immigrants, particularly from eastern Europe. Councils are legally obligated to provide these services to these visitors to our shores even though they may have paid little if anything into the economic 'pot' through taxes or previous payments of Council Tax.
The problem is further exacerbated by Central Government persistently understating Council's populations (particularly those of the new migrants) and thus significantly under calculating its majority funding to the Town Hall coffers - hence the necessity of cuts in service elsewhere to fund the growth in demand in key areas such as education.
Many Councils have appealed the Governments calculated population figures for their boroughs by simply showing them the number of people in their areas registered with the local GP's.
I'm not saying that authorities are efficient - they are not - but not all the problems are of their own making.
These days probably two thirds (maybe more) of the income that Council's spend comes directly from the central Government - the money that we pay in Taxes (Income Tax, VAT, etc).
All Business Rates collected by Council's are given to Central Government - who in turn determine how much of it is given back to the Council's based on some extremely complicated calculations.
As for Council expenditure, again I don't know the current percentages but it used to be something like two thirds of it was spent on education, and a further 20 odd percent on Social Services, the rest being spread across refuse collection and disposal, Highways, Housing, etc, etc.
Probably the biggest problems many councils face is the massive boom in demand for education and social care provision that as been experienced over the last half dozen years or so from the influx of economic immigrants, particularly from eastern Europe. Councils are legally obligated to provide these services to these visitors to our shores even though they may have paid little if anything into the economic 'pot' through taxes or previous payments of Council Tax.
The problem is further exacerbated by Central Government persistently understating Council's populations (particularly those of the new migrants) and thus significantly under calculating its majority funding to the Town Hall coffers - hence the necessity of cuts in service elsewhere to fund the growth in demand in key areas such as education.
Many Councils have appealed the Governments calculated population figures for their boroughs by simply showing them the number of people in their areas registered with the local GP's.
I'm not saying that authorities are efficient - they are not - but not all the problems are of their own making.
