Council Tax budgets and spending

Elected councillors agree a budget each year that shows how much money we will need for the services we will be providing, and where the money will come from. Council Tax has to make up the difference between the amount we receive from other sources and the total it costs us to provide our services. This difference is called the Council Tax requirement.

Council Tax bills also include charges from local town and parish councils (PDF, 587KB), Cheshire Constabulary, and Cheshire Fire Authority. Each of these organisations sets their own budget for the services they provide. Where a Town or Parish Council plans to raise more than £140,000 they must publish details of their gross expenditure.

Council Tax budget summary 2026-27

For 2026-27, the budgets to be met from Council Tax in the Cheshire East Council area are:

We have increased Council Tax by 4.99% for 2026-27.

There are three reasons for this year's increase:

• there is continuing growing demand for social care
• the costs of providing services continue to rise due to ongoing inflation levels
• Following the funding review of local authorities by central government, the expectation is that we continue to increase council tax at the maximum levels before holding a local referendum. This is assumed within in the headline funding increase announcements for Cheshire East Councils Core Spending Power (5.2%)

Business growth is helping to bring in more money from Business Rates, and the growth in house building should mean more Council Tax payers and higher Council Tax income. But it will still be a major challenge to raise the amount of money to cover what's needed.

Changes between the 2025-26 and 2026-27 budgets

We need to raise £20.8 million more from Council Tax including town and parish charges in 2026-27 than we did in 2025-26. This is due to continued inflation and higher demand for key services. For more detailed budget information please see the Cheshire East Budget Medium Term Financial Strategy 2026-2030

How we spend our income

We split our services into service committee areas.

Spending by service committee area

Breakdown of income and expenditure by service committee area

Notes

A - The gross expenditure columns shows what we plan to spend in 2026-27

B - Service-specific income includes income from:

• grants that can only be used for the particular service
• fees and charges for services
• other external contributions for the particular service

C - The net expenditure figure is the amount left after deducting the sum in the income column. This is the amount of money we need to cover from general income. General income comes from Council Tax, Business Rates and government grants.

D - Exceptional Financial Support - see Cheshire East Budget - Medium Term Financial Strategy for further information.

E - The totals line shows that after taking into account income we receive for specific spending areas, we still need to raise £453.277 million to cover the costs of services. This money has to come from general income - Council Tax, Business Rates and central government grants.

Sources of general income

Capital spending

Our ongoing programme of capital investment includes investment in assets such as roads, land and buildings, equipment and vehicles.

We often spread the costs and benefits of this investment over a number of years. In 2026-27, we plan to spend £156.163 million on capital investment. This spending will be funded by a combination of government grants, affordable borrowing, developer contributions and proceeds from the sale of assets.

Breakdown of income and expenditure by service committee area for capital spending

Detailed budget information

Our budget pages give full details of our budgets. On these budget pages, some areas of spending have the same name as the service portfolio but show a different figure from that given on this page. This is because on the budget pages we break the spending down into a wider number of service areas. To read the full budget breakdown, see Cheshire East budget.

Local Precepts over £140,000 2026-27

Town and parish councils who plan to raise more than £140,000 from local Council Taxpayers are required to provide details of their gross expenditure. Those town and parish councils affected are detailed below:

Contact Council Tax

Council Tax enquiry form

If you're unable to use our forms or have any questions about your bill you can call the Council Tax Customer Service Team on 0300 123 5013 between 8:30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.