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What is Council Tax?

Council Tax is a local tax that helps to pay for a wide range of public services in your borough.

Each household receives a bill and the amount each household pays depends on which property valuation band the home is in and any discounts or exemptions that apply.

There are 8 valuation bands which relate to the value of the property on 1 April 1991, with the value of new properties being assessed back to this date.

In addition to Merton’s Council Tax, the Council also collect an amount of Council Tax on behalf of the GLA, and households within three quarters of a mile of Wimbledon Common are required to pay an additional levy for Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservation.

Council tax charges and bands

The amount of council tax you pay depends on which of the eight bands your home comes under.

We use band D charge as the basis for working out the charge for the other bands. For example, the charge for a band D property for 2024/25 is £1,993.38.

To work out the cost of a band A property in the main part of the borough it’s £1,993.38 x 6/9.

BandProperty value (on 1 April 1991)Proportion of band D chargeCouncil tax charge (main part of borough)
AUp to £40,0006/9£1,328.92
B£40,001–£52,0007/9£1,550.40
C£52,001–£68,0008/9£1,771.89
D£68,001–£88,0009/9£1,993.38
E£88,001–£120,00011/9£2,436.36
F£120,001–£160,00013/9£2,879.33
G£160,001–£320,00015/9£3,322.30
H£320,001 upwards18/9£3,986.76

If you live within the area of Wimbledon and Putney Common you pay an extra £39.15 (Band D) to cover the expenses of the Commons Conservators. Including this charge, the Band D charge is £2,032.53.

You may not have to pay the full council tax charge as you may be entitled to a discount or an exemption

What council tax helps pay for

Council tax helps pays for the local services we provide. With the introduction of the Adult Social Care Levy there are four main elements to the charge:

  • spending on local services, such as education, waste collection, green spaces, and care services including levies , which the Council is required by statute to pay to the Environment Agency, the London Pension Fund Authority, and Lee Valley Regional Park.
  • Spending on adult social care which is ring-fenced and funded by the Adult Social Care precept
  • the GLA charge for the services they provide, such as police and fire services which is collected by the Council and passed to the GLA
  • If you live within the area of Wimbledon and Putney Common you pay an extra £39.15 (Band D) to cover the expenses of the Commons Conservators.
Merton's Band D Council Tax2023/24
£
2024/25
£
Change
£
Change %
Merton General Precept1,278.061,321.37  
Merton Adult Social Care Precept171.62200.61  
Merton Band D exc. WPCC1,449.681,521.9872.30*5.0%
GLA Precept434.14471.4037.268.6%
Merton Band D inc. GLA exc. WPCC1,883.821,993.38109.565.8%
WPCC35.9639.153.198.9%
Merton Band D inc. WPCC & GLA1,919.782,032.53112.755.9%

*Of the 5% increase in Council Tax, 3% (£43.31) is for Merton’s general precept and 2% (£28.99) is for the Adult Social Care Precept.

Average Council Tax

The Government require the Council to express its Council Tax as an average. Merton’s  average 2024/25 Band D council tax is £1,527.88. i.e. across the Council’s area most properties pay the general Council tax but some properties also pay the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators levy. The total council tax raised for Merton’s services across the borough is then converted to an average although no properties pay the average, they either pay the Merton Council Tax (Band D = £1,521.98) or the Merton + WPCC Council Tax (Band D = £1,561.13).

The 2024/25 average council tax (Band D) including the GLA precept is £1,999.28.

Image
Band D CTAX

Precept

Local authorities with responsibility for social care, such as Merton,  may levy a precept to

spend exclusively on adult social care. For 2024/25, without triggering the need for a local referendum, councils such as Merton are able to increase their council tax level by up to 5% (comprising 2% for adult social care precept, and 3% for other expenditure). The 2024/25 Adult Social Care precept (Band D) has been set at £28.99 (2%).

How is Council Tax calculated?

  1. we plan our services for the coming year and work out how much they will cost to provide
  2. we deduct any income that we expect to receive during the year from fees and charges, government grants and other contributions, and a share of business rates (30%)
  3. the resulting balance is the amount we need to fund from Council Tax. The Council Tax is calculated by dividing this figure between all properties in the borough, taking into account the different Council Tax property bands.
  4. Main income sources in 2024/25 and amount raised per head.
Funding sources 2024/25£m%£/head*
Government Grants28.614.2%£132.98
Business rates43.921.8%£204.09
Revenue Support Grant6.53.2%£30.27
Collection fund3.21.6%£15.06
Council tax requirement119.659.2%£555.65
Image
how we fund our budget requirement

Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)

You can view our financial plans for the next four years in our Medium Term Financial Strategy

The services we deliver

This table shows the amount we plan to spend on council services in 2024 to 2025 compared to last year.

 2023/24 2024/25
 

Gross Expenditure

£000's

Income

£000's

Net Expenditure

£000's

 

Gross Expenditure

£000's

Income

£000's

Net Expenditure

£000's

Innovation & Change23,250(20,384)2,866Innovation & Change26,596(20,561)6,036
Finance & Digital91,735(80,469)11,266Finance & Digital90,890(75,709)15,181
Housing & Sustainable Development22,762(17,483)5,279Housing & Sustainable Development25,861(18,556)7,305
Environment, Civic Pride & Climate67,654(46,801)20,853Environment, Civic Pride & Climate72,815(44,887)27,928
Children, Lifelong Learning & Families269,315(199,749)69,566Children, Lifelong Learning & Families305,448(231,248)74,200
Adult Social Care & Integrated Care93,703(25,716)67,987Adult Social Care & Integrated Care106,327(26,551)79,776
Other11,017011,017Other9,48309,483
Net Service Expenditure579,436(390,602)188,834Net Service Expenditure637,420(417,512)219,909
Corporate Provisions/Appropriations26,001(32,763)(6,762)Corporate Provisions/Appropriations25,412(43,465)(18,053)
Net budget requirement605,437(423,365)182,072Net budget requirement662,832(460,977)201,856
        
Memorandum:
*Public Health
12,470(12,470)0Memorandum:
*Public Health
13,660(13,660)0

*Public health funding is provided by the NHS and is not part of our services. We have included it to show that it is money we are responsible for although it has no effect on the level of council tax set

Planned spending for 2024-25

This chart shows the budgeted spend on services in a pie chart from the 2024 to 2025 income and expenditure table

Image
how the money is spent

Changes in our revenue spend from 2023-24 to 2024-25

Our spending has gone up from £182.072m in 2023-24 to £201.856m in 2024-25.

Item£000
Revenue Spending 2023/24182,072
Savings in Service Provision(2,159)
Growth in Service provision5,166
Social Care4,921
Pay and Price increases (Net)11,527
Provision against service shortfalls4,170
Other adjustments, concessionary fares, income etc.5,088
Capital financing and Investment Income(5,640)
Appropriations to/(from) reserves(3,289)
Budget Requirement 2024/25201,856

Levies

These are the bodies we pay levies to. These are set by the bodies and we do not have a choice in paying these.

Levy2023/24
£
2024/25
£
Lee Valley Regional Park197,385202,188
Environment Agency: Flood Defences183,743186,362
London Pensions Fund Authority254,30224,710
Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators422,948461,263
Total Levies1,058,378874,523

Borrowing

We estimate our long-term borrowing to fund capital programme projects which help improve the borough’s economic well-being, to be £52m as of 31 March 2024.

It is expected that this will remain at £52m at 31 March 2025.

The interest charges arising on this amount are financed from the council’s resources.

Staff

We estimate the number of staff we will employ (calculated on a full-time basis) in 2024/25 to be 2,081. This compares with a total of 2,045 in 2023/24.