Council Tax 1

How your Council Tax is spent

Check out the guide explaining how your Council Tax is spent for a breakdown of where Sefton Council spends its budget and your Council Tax. 

Sefton Council set a net budget before non-specific Government Grants of £257,465,610 (excluding Parishes) for 2022/2023. This is £27.3m more than the budget for 2021/2022. However, this is partly due to the net impact of changes in Business Rates Section 31 Grants brought and carried forward to offset declared deficits of £19.0m. Excluding this the net budget has increased by £8.3m. The analysis of the Council Tax Requirement and Budget Requirement is provided below:

Note 1: The table below highlights the major variances in the Budget Requirement (before non-specific Government Grants) between 2021/2022 and 2022/2023:

Sefton Council's Revenue Budget
Sefton's Analysis of General Fund Expenditure & Income for 2022/2023 can be viewed below.

Sefton's Estimated Balances
Sefton’s general revenue balances are estimated to be £15.7m as at 31 March 2022. The 2022/2023 Budget assumes general balances will be increased by £2.9m. This excludes reserves held by schools; these are estimated to be £15m as at 31 March 2022.

Capital Investment Plan 2022/2023 - 2024/2025
The Council's Capital Investment Plan for 2022/2023 – 2024/2025 currently totals £89.7m, including some indicative grants, and is funded primarily from Central Government Allocations, Specific Capital Grants, Capital Receipts and Council Borrowing. The Plan includes schemes for Strategic Investment (£10.6m), Adult Social Care (£21.4m), Highways and Public Protection (£34.1m) and Education Excellence (£14.8m). It should be noted that any resources identified as unspent in 2021/2022 at the year-end will slip into 2022/2023 and additional resources may yet be allocated to new schemes in 2022/2023.

Sefton's Employees
The number of employees within Sefton in March 2022 is 5,784 (full time equivalent). The figure in March 2021 was 5,709, i.e., there has been an increase of 75. Included within this increase, there has been an increase of 37 in schools, and an increase of 46 in Children’s Social Care following additional investment made in the Service by the Council.

Precepting Bodies

Environment Agency (North West Region) 

The Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2011

The Environment Agency is a levying body for its Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Functions under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and the Environment Agency (Levies) (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.

The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 6500 kilometres of main river and along tidal and sea defences in the area of the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. Money is spent on the construction of new flood defence schemes, the maintenance of the river system and existing flood defences together with the operation of a flood warning system and management of the risk of coastal erosion. The financial details are:

The majority of funding for flood defence comes directly from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). However, under the new Partnership Funding rule not all schemes will attract full central funding. To provide local funding for local priorities and contributions for partnership funding the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees recommend through the Environment Agency a local levy.

A change in the gross budgeted expenditure between years reflects the programme of works for both capital and revenue needed by the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee to which you contribute. The total Local Levy raised by this committee has increased by 2.5%

The total Local Levy raised has increased from £4,178,918 in 2021/2022 to £4,283,391 for 2022/2023.

Customer Service Line: 03708 506 506
Incident Hotline: 0800 80 70 60
Floodline: 0345 988 1188
Web: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency

Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA)

The Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) are the public body responsible for dealing with household waste and recycling once it’s been collected from your home.

Using the latest technologies we aim to make sure as much waste as possible is sustainably managed. Our Energy from Waste facility in Wilton diverts over 92% of Merseyside’s non-recycled waste from landfill – and in the process saves more than £100m in current landfill disposal costs over the life of its contract.

We work hard to encourage Merseyside’s householders to use less in the first place and, through our 14 Household Waste Recycling Centres and District Council kerbside collections, to recycle as much as they can. Last year, 34.7% of Merseyside’s household waste was reused, recycled and composted. Recycling, alongside our waste prevention work and involvement with community projects, can help us all contribute to stopping climate change.

You can read more about our work at www.merseysidewda.gov.uk.

Financial Summary

The Levy for Sefton Council for 2022-23 will be £15,876,545.

For more information contact:

Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority
7th Floor
No.1 Mann Island
Liverpool
L3 1BP

Tel: 0151 255 1444
E-mail: enquiries@merseysidewda.gov.uk
Web: www.merseysidewda.gov.uk
Web: www.recycleright.org.uk
Web: www.zerowastelcr.com

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner 

After a decade of austerity, one of my main priorities as Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner is to help Merseyside Police rebuild and that is what I am focused on delivering.

In the last two years, 665 new police officers have been recruited. Some are already walking the beat, keeping our communities safe and the rest will join them very soon, preventing crime, protecting the public and maintaining safety.

But there are still significant challenges ahead.

We remain 456 police officers short of the number we had back in 2010. We need to find a further £3m of cuts in the year ahead, and we predict we will have to find a further £13.7m of savings by 2026/27.

With these challenges, setting a balanced budget for our police service has been no easy task.

While I was very reluctant to ask you as taxpayers to contribute a little extra to support policing, I’m grateful to have had your backing through my public consultation and that of the body which scrutinises my work, the Police and Crime Panel.

Thanks to your support, we will be able to maintain those 665 new police officer posts, protect PCSO and police staff jobs and put Merseyside Police in the best possible position to keep our communities safe in the year ahead.

In return, I promise to continue to lobby the Government at every chance I get to provide the funding for our missing 456 officers, and I will also work to secure extra grants and funding for our region wherever I can.

I will also hold the Chief Constable to account to ensure we maximise every penny of this budget delivering on the shared priorities set out in my Police and Crime Plan to keep you safe.

Thank you for playing a vital role in helping us to build a Safer Merseyside.

Emily Spurrell
Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside

Police and Crime Commissioner Budget

How the money is spent:

Where the money comes from:

Why has Council Tax changed?

Contact:

Phone: 0151 777 5155
Email: info@merseysidepcc.info
Web: www.merseysidepcc.info

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority

Precept Information 2022-2023

The Authority is facing increasing environmental; terrorist; fire; and protection risks. By managing its resources it has secured significant re-investment back into the organisation in recent years, particularly in frontline response and protection services. It has increased the number of available fire appliances from 26 to 32, with a long-term aspiration to have 34 appliances, and the number of firefighters from 620 to 642.

The Authority continues to look to invest in the Service, and the 2022/2023 budget includes a capital programme that invests £62m in the Service’s infrastructure by 2026/2027. This includes a potential new £35m Training and Development Academy and fire station.

The ongoing investment the Authority has made in the Service and the benefits this brings to the Merseyside community, are reflected in the latest HMICFRS inspection evaluation. The Authority scored an unprecedented three ‘Outstanding’ judgements across the eleven sub themes for its work preventing fires and other emergencies, its response to major and multi-agency incidents, and for making the best use of its resources.

How We Are Funded
The Authority’s 2022/2023 Gross Budget is £94m. This excludes the £11m the Authority incurs in its role as lead authority for the Home Office’s National Assurance Resilience initiative, as this is fully funded by them. The Gross budget is the total amount that the Authority plans to spend, and the pie graph below outlines how this is funded:

How The Money Is Spent
Approximately 74% of the Authority’s 2022/2023 budget remains committed to delivering Operational Response, Protection and Preventative frontline services, as these functions have been recognised as priority areas by the public following extensive consultation. The costs associated with funding capital investment account for 11%, and relate to investment in frontline activities such as fire stations, fire appliances and operational equipment. The remaining 15% is on support services, of which a significant proportion relates to essential frontline service support such as insurance of vehicles and premises, the vehicle maintenance workshop, and ICT costs.

Council Tax Charge
The Council Tax for a Band D property has been set at:

The Authority set a Council Tax requirement of £31.688m for 2022/2023 and a Council Tax for a Band D property of £83.61, a 1.96% increase on the 2021/2022 figure of £82.00. By increasing the council tax charge, it allows the Authority to maintain the investment in frontline services and fund the further investment planned in 2022/2023. Most council taxpayers in Merseyside will pay Band A Council Tax of £55.74 about 15p per day towards their Fire and Rescue Service.

The Authority has issued a precept on the five Merseyside District Councils of £31.688m, Sefton’s contribution to expenditure financed by precept is £7.037m, which represents 22.2% of the total precept.

Contact the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority

Ian Cummins, CIPFA,
Director of Finance and Procurement
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority
Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters,
Bridle Road, Bootle
Liverpool, L30 4YD

Telephone: 0151 296 4000
E-Mail: iancummins@merseyfire.gov.uk
Web: www.merseyfire.gov.uk

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor & Combined Authority 

As the elected Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram is committed to ensuring that every part of our region shares in the benefits of a fair and prosperous economy, where no one is left behind.

From the Young Person’s Guarantee, which guarantees a job, training or apprenticeship opportunity to unemployed young people to Housing First a radical new approach to helping the homeless, we are leading the way in building a fairer, more inclusive local economy.

Combined Authority interventions have already delivered 10,000 new jobs and 7,000 apprenticeships across our region and invested tens of millions of pounds in local schools and colleges.

The Mayor’s ambition is to secure the Liverpool City Region’s position as a pioneer in the Green Industrial Revolution and establish ourselves as Britain’s Renewable Energy Coast promoting our unparalleled strengths in renewable energy and ambitions in tidal power. Under his plans, we will hit net zero carbon at least a decade before national targets.

Real progress is also being made to deliver a London-style local transport network that makes getting round the region cheaper, quicker, cleaner and more reliable. Bringing together our buses, trains and ferries and linking them to new and upgraded cycling and walking routes under one integrated network, will transform public transport.

The Mayor is accountable to, and represents the people of, all six boroughs in Liverpool City Region: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

In accordance with the Combined Authorities (Finance) Order 2017, the Mayor is seeking to set a Mayoral precept for 2022/23 of £19 per Band D property - which is a freeze on the last year’s precept and the lowest rate in the country. Most Council Tax payers across the city region will pay a Band A Council Tax rate of £12.67 per year.

The precept will enable the CA to ensure its long-term financial sustainability and help ensure that the Mayoral objectives – a London-style integrated transport network, a fairer, more inclusive local economy, a Green Industrial Revolution and a strong recovery from the Coronavirus – are delivered.

To date, this has included helping local councils to protect local jobs and businesses through a £50m support package during COVID, tailoring programmes to help small and socially-trading businesses, and continued lobbying for greater support from central government.

On day one after his re-election in May, he launched a £150m COVID Recovery Fund to help the launch the region’s post-pandemic recovery, creating jobs, support businesses and attracting more investment.

The movement in the gross expenditure budget is detailed below.

For more information, visit www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk

Transport Funding

The LCRCA’s transport responsibilities are funded through transport levies across each of the six councils. This funds concessionary travel, subsidised bus services, the Mersey Ferries and a range of other services.

The transport levy 2022/23 for each of the Merseyside Councils within the LCRCA is:

For historical and legal reasons Halton Council currently provide transport activities directly within the boundaries of the borough of Halton.

This is funded through a differential transport levy collected by Halton on behalf of the LCRCA which will be £3.24m for 2022/23.

Mayor Steve Rotheram
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region

Mr John Fogarty, B.A. Hons, C.P.F.A.
Executive Director of Corporate Services: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

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