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, 105KB), 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 2025-26 

For 2025-26, the budgets to be met from Council Tax in the Cheshire East Council area are:

We have increased Council Tax by 4.99% for 2025-26.

There are three reasons for this year's increase:

• there is continuing growing demand for social care
• the costs of providing services have risen due to exception inflation levels
• we continue to have extremely low levels of general revenue support grant (£0.8 million allocated for 2025-26)

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 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets

We need to raise £21.5 million more from Council Tax including town and parish charges in 2025-26 than we did in 2024-25. This is due to exceptional inflation and higher demand for key services.

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

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 £402.4 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

Sources of general income

Source of income	Amount 2025-26	Amount 2024-25
	£m	£m
Business Rates retained	57.122	56.627
Revenue support grant (central government)	0.849	0.414
Specific grant (central government)	37.140	31.582
Cheshire East Borough Council Tax	307.264	287.086
Total general income	402.375	375.709

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 2025-26, we plan to spend £173.1 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

Breakdown of income and expenditure by service committee area

Service committee area	Capital expenditure 2025-26
	£m
Adults and Health	0.4
Children and Families	37.7
Corporate Policy	12.7
Economy and Growth	36.1
Environment and Communities	19.3
Highways and Transport	66.8
Total	173.1

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 2025-26

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:

Local Precepts over £140,000 2025-26

Town / Parish Council	Gross Expenditure	Income & Reserves	Precept
	£	£	£
Alderley Edge Parish Council	595,330	430,330	165,000
Alsager Town Council	933,970	246,066	687,904
Bollington Town Council	508,434	70,434	438,000
Congleton Town Council	2,067,619	734,386	1,333,233
Crewe Town Council	1,573,878	133,082	1,440,796
Disley Parish Council	303,190	98,503	204,687
Handforth Town Council	275,002	105,002	170,000
Holmes Chapel Parish Council	318,102	38,110	279,992
Knutsford Town Council	1,026,265	209,585	816,680
Macclesfield Town Council	2,659,927	1,342,400	1,317,527
Middlewich Town Council	697,785	42,565	655,220
Nantwich Town Council	1,842,128	755,153	1,086,975
Poynton with Worth Town Council	728,695	69,600	659,095
Prestbury Parish Council	163,250	0	163,250
Sandbach Town Council	1,077,980	262,913	815,067
Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council	352,543	107,319	245,224
Wilmslow Town Council	1,011,656	328,361	683,295

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 during normal office hours, 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.

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