Council tax and what it pays for

What is council tax?

Council tax is a yearly charge on all domestic properties and helps to pay for the following local services:

Council services

Council tax pays for a range of different services that are provided by the council.

Parish councils

Each town or parish council provides a different level of service based on the individual requirements of the area it serves. This means they are responsible for setting their own budgets and each year they make a request to us to include a charge for their services in your council tax bill. 

Special expenses

Special expenses are charges for services we provide, such as maintenance of parks, open spaces and closed churchyards, which in other areas of the East Riding are provided by the town and parish councils

Humberside Fire & Rescue

Your council tax bill includes a charge for fire and rescue services. We are required to collect this on behalf of Humberside Fire and Rescue. You can find out how much of your council tax money is required to provide their services and how the money will be spent:

Humberside Fire & Rescue (external website, opens in new window)

Humberside Police

Your council tax bill includes a charge for police services. We are required to collect this on behalf of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside Police. You can find out how much of your council tax money is required to provide their services and how the money will be spent:

Humberside Police Crime Commissioner (pdf 324kb, opens in new window)

What's included in my council tax bill and why?

As council tax bills are sent out across the East Riding we have created this quick video to help you understand what everything on the bill means and why it is there:

Council tax bill explained (pdf 436kb opens in new window)

Who has to pay council tax?

Only people aged 18 or over have to pay council tax. If there is more than one person aged 18 or over in your home, the person nearest the top of the following list is responsible for paying council tax:

• resident freeholder
  
• resident leaseholder
  
• resident tenant
  
• resident licensee
  
• any other resident
  
• the owner, if the property is not occupied.
  

A resident is someone aged 18 years or over who has their only or main home at your property. If you have two or more residents in your home that meet the same description (such as joint freeholders), they are jointly responsible for paying the bill. This means we require all or any one of them to pay the council tax.

An owner is someone who is the freeholder or someone who has a lease for at least six months, such as a tenancy agreement.

Married couples, those living together in a spousal relationship or civil partners have joint responsibility, even if they do not have an equal interest in the property.

Where does the council's money come from?

Our budget (gross expenditure) this year is £771.9 million. This includes budget savings of £12.5 million to meet a £6.5 million reduction in government grant funding and service cost pressures of £22.2 million (such as the rising costs of providing some of our services). 

This year we need to collect 22 per cent of our budget from council tax. This is £168.8million. 

We have increased our general council tax charge by 3 per cent.

The table below shows our budget for the year and where our money comes from:

Where does council tax money go?

Council tax contributes to a range of services offered by us. The table below shows these services and how much goes to each service.

We deliver a vast range of services to people who live and work in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

In 2019/20, we plan to invest nearly £772m in services for residents, businesses and visitors:

• £287m on education, including over £184m allocated to schools and £23m on high needs.
• Over £167m on care services for older people and those with physical and/or learning disabilities. 
• Nearly £30m on children's social care.
• Over £23m on providing high quality leisure facilities, libraries and the customer service network.
• Over £32m on streetscene services which include waste, recycling, grounds maintenance and street cleansing services.
• Over £12m on economic regeneration which supports a range of activities which help business and employability of the local labour market.
• We are also spending over £49m on Housing and Public Protection. We are committed to building around 400 homes to rent over the next four years and an increase in shared ownership homes of 20 per annum

There is also a contribution towards services such as drainage and flood defenses.