LB Harrow Draft Budget 2025/26

What is this consultation about?

Each year councils are required by law to set a balanced budget – as we work to set the budget for 2025/26, we are carrying out a consultation to gather the views of residents, businesses and community organisations.

This year the Council Budget consultation also includes fees and charges for 2025/26. The fees and charges include services provided by the Council ranging from commercial waste and highways to planning support and other chargeable services.

We know that the next few years will continue to be challenging. Across London, councils are facing a £700m shortfall in budgets for next year and nationally, councils continue to struggle with one in four saying they are likely to have to apply for emergency government financial bailouts.

Robust financial management and savings made in previous years means we are not one of these at-risk councils. However, more people needing more help and the cost of providing this help has put huge pressures on council finances – we need to save a further £8.7m over the next three years to balance the books.

Like many other councils, the greatest increase in demand continues in our frontline services that legally the Council must provide, including social care for adults and children and temporary accommodation. Two thirds (66%) of our budget – that’s £135m out of £203m - is spent on supporting children and vulnerable adults in Harrow. Soaring levels of homelessness continues to push our bill for temporary accommodation higher – this year the bill has increased by 33% to around £12m.

Where your money goes: some of the spending areas that put the biggest pressure on our budget

We must now look at how we are going to pay for services and the fees we charge for next year – and future years. And we want to know what you think.

Where does the money come from?

In Harrow we are heavily reliant on Council Tax to fund our core budget. This year, almost 80% of our day-to-day (revenue) budget is funded by you from Council Tax – that’s £162m out of £203m to be exact.

While we receive Government funding to help us deliver services – they tell us how we must use this money for example on schools, public health and housing benefits.

We won’t know our exact funding from Government until the end of the year. However, we do know that the Government’s funding decisions assume that councils like ours will increase council tax next year by 4.99% (2.99% for council services plus a further 2% earmarked for adult social care).

Our income sources

What happened in 2024/25?

Every year, we deliver services to more than 263,000 people. We estimate that this year (2024/25) it will cost us £203 million on public services to help us restore pride in Harrow and deliver our key priorities:

In April 2024, we increased Council tax by 4.99% (2.99% for Council services and the 2% social care levy) giving us an extra £8.2m to spend on services. But high prices caused by high inflation over the last couple of years has made it more expensive to deliver council services.

We also reduced our running costs. We reshaped our workforce and are more efficient in how we deliver services, while minimising the impact of disruption on those services residents told us they rely on the most.

This year we have continued to invest in the things you told us were important to you. The things that you told us make the biggest difference to your safety and quality of life, and the local economy. Things like cleaning streets, fining the fly-tippers and fixing roads and one hours free parking.

Our investment in things you told us were important to you

So what are the council doing?

Before setting our budget in February and sending council tax bills out in March, like you we’re having to look at our spending. We know that the next few years will continue to be challenging.

Our draft budget for next year (2025/26) has been put together to ensure every pound is spent on delivering services that matter most to our residents, services that put residents first, deliver a clean and safe borough and support those in need.

The pressures that we saw last year have carried over into this financial year and this is why we have made the difficult decision to propose an increase in Council Tax by 4.99% next year. This is 2.99% for council services and the 2% government levy specifically ring-fenced for spending on adult social care. We are proposing this 4.99% increase because otherwise we would have to find another £10.9m of savings.

We recognise that as well as making savings we also need to continue to improve our frontline services that put residents first, deliver a clean and safe borough and support those in need. This budget proposes we do that by:

What’s the outlook?

The good news is that next year we will have a balanced budget giving us enough money to protect the frontline services people rely on. From delivering social care to libraries, leisure centres and parks, we will continue to deliver on key priorities and services that put residents first, deliver a clean and safe borough and support those in need.

How can you help?

As we plan our spending for the year ahead, we'd like to hear your views.

Our consultation has some questions for you on budgets. There’s information here that explains where our money comes in, and more importantly where it goes.

This consultation is your chance to get involved in the budget conversations. We’d really like you to take a look and tell us what you think - the consultation survey is at the bottom of this page.

Before you complete the survey…

We recommend you

Anything else?

We've also included some Frequently Asked Questions and answers to help you navigate council finances and budget-setting.