Behind the budget
Our budget currently funds more than 700 services for people living and working in the city.
Below is more detail about some of the things that fund the council's budget and how we're able to spend that money.
How Council Tax funds the council
Council Tax will be 19.9% of our total income for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.
We'll update this page with further information for 2024 to 2025 soon. The information below relates to 2023 to 2024.
The cost of council services is more than the income raised by increasing Council Tax. This creates a funding gap.
We're focussing on ways to:
- reduce costs
- deliver value for money
We're changing the way we deliver our services and finding ways to reduce costs and increase our income.
Reducing costs could mean stopping some of the services we currently provide.
For each 1% rise in Council Tax, we receive £1.65 million. Even with a 4.99% increase, including a 2% Adult Social Care precept, this is considerably short of bridging the funding gap. The budget includes a savings package of £14.2 million.
The budget agreed for 2023 to 2024 includes an increase of 4.99%. This means that the council's element for standard Band D Council Tax will rise by £89.60 to £1,883.63 from 2023 to 2024.
Your total Council Tax bill includes funding for Sussex Police and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. With these amounts included, Council Tax for standard Band D will rise £2,227.91 from 2023 to 2024.
View our full list of Council Tax bands and charges.
Find out more about our income and the cost of our services.
How Council Tax is decided
The Valuation Office sets the Council Tax is based on property values of dwellings and allocated to Bands A to H. The council cannot vary the relative rates applied to different bands as these are set nationally under the Local Government Finance Act.
If the council were to propose a level of Council Tax increase above a threshold set by the government, there would have to be a referendum (4.99% from 2023 to 2024).
Parking charges
We get income from:
- council-owned car parks
- on-street parking
- permits and tickets issued by our parking enforcement officers
The Policy & Resources Committee agreed on the parking charges for 2023 to 2024 on 9 February 2023. Charges were further amended at the Budget Council on 23 February 2023.
Find out more about parking charges in the city.
The following information on this page is taken from the 2022 to 2023 budget. We'll update this page when we have the 2023 to 2024 figures.
Our surplus from on-street parking for 2020 to 2021 was £15.2m and from off-street parking was £2.3m. The surplus is how much we have after the outgoing costs.
Costs include:
- enforcement
- administration
- maintaining parking machines
- reviewing or introducing new schemes
Figures quoted in the media often do not take account of these costs.
The majority of the on-street parking surplus is used to pay for free bus travel for thousands of older and disabled people in the city. The council has a legal duty to provide this and, from 2020 to 2021, we spent £10.5m on providing bus passes.
In 2020 to 2021 we also invested just over £1.5 million to support bus services and other public transport services.
The council spent the remainder on other transport benefits such as:
- traffic light improvements
- schools travel plans
- walking and cycling facilities
You can find out more about income from parking in our parking annual report.
Staff pay and its impact
We're an accredited living wage employer.
The Living Wage is a voluntary commitment. It's separate from the National Minimum Wage which employers are required to pay by law.
The council employs over 4,000 full and part-time staff to manage and deliver more than 700 services.
The council has been changing the way it works to provide services as efficiently as possible. We've reduced staff numbers and introduced digital ways for residents to access services.
Our chief executive, Geoff Raw, is the most senior officer in the council. He's responsible for:
- leading and taking responsibility for the work of all council staff
- managing a budget of £842.1 million (for 2022 to 2023)
The salary of our chief executive is £163,575 a year. This is set to be competitive with other local authorities of similar size and complexity.
Find out more about working for us and staff salaries and pay.
Councillors and their allowances
We asked the Local Government Boundary Commission to give a view on the number of councillors that Brighton & Hove has.
The commission's independent view is that the council has the right number of councillors and wards. This is broadly in line with the average for similar-sized authorities. A reduction in numbers would go below the levels of expected representation.
Changes to councillor numbers could not legally take place until the next elections in 2023.
Councillors’ allowances are set on the recommendations of an independent panel. The total budget for councillors’ allowances in 2022 to 2023 is £1m.
Legal restrictions on spending
The law prevents councillors from spending more than the council receives in funding and income.
Councillors must set a balanced budget by law. Setting an illegal budget would be open to legal and external auditor challenges. It could result in all new spending being halted under a Section 114 notice.