Further information

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

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

• The Revenue Budget (also known as the ‘General Fund’) pays for day-to-day spending on a wide range of 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 received from the UK 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 UK 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.

Table 1 shows how much money we have in each budget this year (2024/25).

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 very specific things. Each year, where required, we consult on these other budgets separately before we set the council’s budget in February.

The money the council has available to spend on delivering day-to-day services to citizens is called the Revenue Budget or the General Fund.

The main sources of income for the Revenue Budget are Council Tax, Business Rates and government grants. Table 2 shows the different sources of income our 2024/25 Revenue Budget is funded from.

Table 2: Sources of income for the Revenue Budget

During the current financial year (2024/25), the council has budgeted £1.2 billion on providing a range of services for the people of Bristol. Figure 1 below sets out how much we are spending this year- including in education, housing and adult social care.

Figure 1: Council spend on services in 2024/25

Note:

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

Of the Housing Support 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.

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 receive in government funding for council services next year and beyond is very uncertain. The UK’s economic outlook remains challenging as 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 requires us to 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 also face the continuing impact from the levels of high inflation in recent years, alongside pay pressures. All of which are contributing 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.

In the current year, 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 both 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

In the current year, 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 a number of factors including the cost of living crisis, unaffordability of the private rented sector and reduced supply of social and affordable housing.

In the current year, 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 by 4.4% from 737 in April 2023 to 771 in April 2024. This mirrors trends nationally. As well as an increase in demand, there has been a reduction in the number of internal placements, which has meant the council has 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).

In the current year, 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 and increasingly that transport is outside the local area.

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 is a question in the survey which will ask you if the proposals would have a different impact on you because of your protected characteristics. We have also described below how the council provides help for low-income households to pay their Council Tax bills.

We will publish full equality impact assessments to Strategy and Resources Policy Committee on 20 January 2025, prior to their recommendation of the budget to Full Council for a final decision.

This means decision makers will have the information necessary to ensure they can have due regard to 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.

Council Tax Reduction Scheme

Since 2013, councils have designed their own Council Tax Reduction (CTR) schemes. Bristol has been among only a small number of authorities to retain a fully funded CTR scheme for those that need financial support. See www.bristol.gov.uk/counciltaxreduction for further information.

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 (LCPF) and the Household Support Fund (HSF).

Further information on the LCPF

Further information on the HSF