Budget 2025/26 consultation

Further information

How the budget works

Every year, we agree a budget for the following year which shows how much money we'll be able to spend on our services.

The overall budget is made up of five main budget areas:

• The Revenue Budget (also known as the General Fund) pays for many essential services that most people use. These include recycling and waste collections, running our parks and libraries, and maintaining our roads. We also provide services that are less visible, such as social care services, which make up by far the largest share of the council’s Revenue Budget (over 70 per cent), providing support to those who need additional help and the most vulnerable in our city
• The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is mostly made up of the rent we collect from council tenants. This money is used to plan and provide services for people living in council housing, including repairs and improvements, and for a programme to build new council homes
• The Dedicated Schools Grant is money we get from the government each year to pay for schools and education services for children and young people in Bristol. The grant can only be used for these things.
• The Public Health Grant is a yearly grant from the UK Government, which can only be used to promote good mental and physical health in the city and pay for services that help people stay healthy. This is supplemented by other public health related funding.
• The Capital Budget is paid for by grants from the government, plus some long-term borrowing and money we make from selling assets we own, such as buildings or land. It is used to invest in new transport projects, building things like schools and houses, investment to maintain and improve existing housing, and partnering with other organisations, for example to deliver infrastructure regeneration

This consultation asks you about some of the ways we can raise money for the Revenue Budget.

The other four budgets are funded in different ways and the council can only spend the money in those budgets on specific things. Each year, where required, we consult on these other budgets separately before we set the council’s budget in February.

How the Revenue Budget is funded

The main sources of income for the Revenue Budget are council tax, business rates and government grants.

Where the money goes

During the current financial year (2024/2025), the council budgeted £1.2 billion on providing a range of services for the people of Bristol.

Figure 1 shows how much we're spending this year - including in education, housing and adult social care.

Figure 1: Council spend on services in 2024/25

The graph shows:

• £190.1 million spent on adult social care
• £98.7 million spent on children and young people
• £518.1 million spent on education
• £148.1 million spent on strategy and resources
• £45.8 million spent on environment and sustainability
• £1.7 million spent on cultural and related
• -£12.7 million spent on transport and connectivity (they raise more than they cost)
• -£1.7 million spent on economy and skills (they raise more than they cost)
• £173.9 million spent on homes and housing delivery
• £57.1 million spent on public health

Note:

Of the education budget, £26.4 million is from the revenue budget. The remainder is from the Dedicated Schools Grant ringfenced budget.

Of the Homes and Housing Delivery budget, £22.9 million is from the revenue budget. The remainder is from the Housing Revenue Account ringfenced budget.

Of the Public Health budget, £14.4 million is from the revenue budget. The remainder is from Public Health related grant ringfenced budget

The Budget Challenge

Falling income - rising costs

Over the past 14 years, the amount of money available to the council has fallen in real terms. This is a situation that is being seen across the country and has led to councils facing a cost of operating crisis, with financial pressures like never before.

The main sources of income for any council continue to be from Council Tax, Business Rates and government grants. How much Bristol can expect to get in government funding for council services next year and beyond is very uncertain. The UK’s economic outlook remains challenging because the economy continues to be affected by global events, as well as the ongoing national cost of living crisis. This makes forecasting our future finances difficult and means we must prepare for multiple situations.

During the past year, demand on our services has continued to increase significantly as the city’s population has grown. We continue to see increases in cost and complexity of care and support required for children and adults. Limited market provision of services from private, voluntary or other public sector organisations drives prices for care upwards.

Just like all other organisations and households in Bristol, we're also affected by high inflation in recent years, alongside pay pressures. All of this contributes to higher costs of delivering many of our core services. Prices remain high for goods, services and utilities, meaning that in many cases, the cost of delivering services next year will be significantly more expensive than it was in recent years.

How costs have increased

Adult social care

In 2024 to 2025, the budget for adult social care is £190.1 million. This is all revenue budget. This is forecast to increase due to the following pressures that have been building for many years: 

• demographic pressures with increased numbers of older people needing social care, and increased demand for care from working age adults 
• increases in the National Living Wage costs
• rising costs of care to support people with increasingly complex care needs and the associated workforce challenges across the sector 
• inflationary pressures

Housing Support

In 2024/2025, the revenue budget for housing is £22.9 million (excluding the Housing Revenue Account, which is a separate ring-fenced budget). This is forecast to increase due to pressures within the temporary accommodation sector for people experiencing homelessness in the city due to factors including the cost of living crisis, unaffordability of the private rented sector and reduced supply of social and affordable housing.

Children's Social Care

In 2024/2025, the budget for children’s social care is £98.7 million. This is all revenue budget.

In Bristol the number of children in care has grown from 737 in April 2023 to 771 in April 2024. This mirrors trends nationally. As well as an increase in demand, there's been a reduction in the number of internal placements, which has meant we've had to place more children and young people in higher cost residential placements, such as 'Out of Authority' (in another local authority area) and 'Independent Foster Agency' care (non-local authority agency).

Education services

In 2024/2025, the revenue budget for education services is £26.4 million (excluding the Dedicated Schools Grant, which is a separate ring-fenced budget). This is forecast to increase due to pressures on Home to School Transport where there are ongoing increases in the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) requiring transport to school. Increasingly that transport is outside the local area.

Equality considerations

Protected characteristics

As part of our budget-setting process, we need to consider how the proposed changes could affect people differently, because of their background or other circumstances, such as people in our more deprived communities.

We have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to consider the impacts of our proposals on individuals based on the following criteria: age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, disability, race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation - these are called 'protected characteristics'.

We recognise that increases to council tax and the social care precept can have a greater impact on certain groups, including low-income households, Disabled people, people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, women (particularly single parents), and older residents on fixed incomes, who may feel the effects of financial pressure more acutely. This could potentially widen existing inequalities, especially for those already facing financial challenges or relying on vital services. However, it is essential to balance this with the need to ensure sufficient funding for the services that support those with the greatest need.

There was a question in the survey which asked if the proposals would have a different impact on you because of your protected characteristics. We've also described below how the council provides help for low-income households to pay their council tax bills.

We published full equality impact assessments to the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee on 3 February 2025, before their recommendation of the budget to Full Council for a final decision.

This means decision makers will have the information they need to consider the Public Sector Equality Duty, particularly in relation to any likely disproportionate or negative impact, and potential mitigations, for citizens, service users and employees on the basis of their protected and other relevant characteristics.

We will also provide a cumulative equalities impact assessment to look at the potential combined equality impacts of all the proposed savings and key budget decisions taken together, to identify any particular compound issues or disparities, and what we can do to mitigate them. This will include consideration of any potential impacts for our workforce as well as service users and citizens.

Help for low-income households to meet their council tax bills

Council Tax Reduction Scheme

Since 2013, councils have designed their own Council Tax Reduction scheme. Bristol has been among only a small number of authorities to retain a fully funded Council Tax Reduction scheme for those that need financial support.

Other support funds

During the current financial year (2024/25), we’ve supported low-income households and those in need through a number of further support funds which include the Local Crisis Prevention Fund and the Household Support Fund.