Wirral council tax bills to rise by 4.99% in 2024-25

Plans to increase council tax bills in Wirral by 4.99% for the year 2024-25 have been agreed by councillors.

The rise will include a 2% increase ring-fenced for adult social care, with an additional 2.99% for other council services.

The budget proposals put forward for 2024-25 were for a balanced and legal budget which supports Wirral Council’s frontline services.

It will see band D properties pay £1,888.22 in the coming year, a rise of £89.74 in the basic council tax bill – but additional costs will be added to this for the local contributions to police, fire and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

However, many of the homes in Wirral fall within the lowest bands and more than 80% of Wirral council tax payers will pay less than this because their homes are in council tax Bands A-C. In addition nearly 29,000 households in the borough on lower incomes will receive help with their council tax payments.

The council tax rises agreed for 2024-25 would see the basic amount of council tax per valuation band:

Council Tax Band A £1,258.82 

Council Tax Band B £1,468.62 

Council Tax Band C £1,678.42 

Council Tax Band D £1,888.22

Council Tax Band E £2,307.83

Council Tax Band F £2,727.43

Council Tax Band G £3,147.04

Council Tax Band H £3,776.45

All these bills will increase when precepts for Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – Mayoral Precept are added. 

The final council tax bills for 2024-25 including these precepts will be issued to householders in the coming weeks.

Early in the process of setting a budget for 2024-25, an estimated shortfall of around £15 million had been identified in Wirral Council’s budget for the coming year. 

However, building on the work of the previous year to reduce budget pressures, officers brought forward plans for significant transformational savings to assist in balancing the budget for 2024-25 and provide further savings in the following years to allow long term planning and ensure Wirral Council becomes financially sustainable.

This will also include £1 million funding this coming year from the identified savings which will be focused on delivering improvements that most directly impact residents, plus new bins, improvements to parks and green spaces and machinery for clearing gutters. More details of this will be released in the near future.