How we spend your money

Message from Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council

Investing in your priorities

Every year, we set a budget with a simple test: does it protect the frontline services people rely on, and does it respond to your call for Brent Council to move faster and fix more of the things that matter to you?

This year’s budget does just that.

At a time when public services remain under real pressure, our priorities are clear: we are protecting the services that matter most, investing in Brent’s future, and supporting people in their hour of need.

You will see investment in cleaner streets, better public spaces, improved parks, safer neighbourhoods and more new council homes. We are also protecting the vital services that hold Brent together – caring for older residents and people with disabilities, safeguarding children and young people, improving residents’ health and supporting families through difficult times. These services are often unseen, but they define who we are as a council.

Alongside the day-to-day services your council tax supports, we also invest in major projects that shape Brent over the long term. Our capital programme will total £293.8million this year. This includes £5.9million for road improvements, an additional £23.1million for the Wembley Housing Zone to deliver new affordable homes and a community centre, and £2.8million for a new skills centre for 16-25 year olds with special educational needs and disabilities. Beyond this year, we will also invest £2.6million to expand CCTV and improve public safety and £11.2million to support the regeneration of The College of North West London with improved education facilities and nearly 2,000 new homes.

We are also demanding stronger powers to tackle gambling harms that devastate families, and will continue to press for investment in the West London Orbital: a new London Overground Line that will unlock jobs, opportunity and cleaner transport for Brent.

In the pages that follow, you will see what your council tax has helped deliver and the progress we have made – but you will also read about some of the challenges we all face.

Brent has an ageing population, and there are more residents who need our help while the cost of providing services is also more expensive.

To balance the budget, we must find around £10million in savings. Like most councils, we will need to increase council tax by 4.99%, to safeguard essential services. Support is available through the Council Tax Support Scheme and the Brent Resident Support Fund.

At the same time, we are accelerating change behind the scenes so that every pound we spend delivers more value. We are using data and technology to work smarter, improving online access, securing better deals from suppliers and making more efficient use of council buildings.

Thank you for contributing to local services through your council tax. It is through this shared responsibility that we look after one another and build a Brent that is fairer, stronger and full of opportunity: today and for generations to come.

Cllr Muhammed Butt
Leader of Brent Council

We are committed to making every penny count, delivering hundreds of services for local residents, 365 days a year. Here are some of the key things we have delivered recently:

Prosperity and Stability in Brent

• Helped over 3,500 residents gain new skills through 435 courses
• 418 affordable homes delivered
• £4.5m in cost-of-living support
• Helped almost 4,500 residents with housing, debt and more at Brent Hubs
• 4,000 property inspections to drive up standards for private renters

Thriving Communities

• Our libraries welcomed 1,223,038 visitors and issued 884,704 items across six libraries including housebound services and eBooks
• Improvements to streets, parks, youth centres and public spaces through an ongoing £26.9 million investment programme
• 8 knife bins installed and 895 weapons removed from our streets

A Cleaner, Greener Future

• Cleared 33,500 fly tips
• Repaired 7,497 potholes
• Collected 58,000 tonnes of rubbish and recycling from over 130,000 homes & kept streets clean
• Cut our carbon emissions by 71.9% since 2010
• Kept 110 award-winning parks and open spaces flourishing
• £14.5m looking after 315 miles of road and 529 miles of pavement
• £75,000 for community-led climate projects

The Best Start in Life

• Created over 400 new school places for children with special educational needs
• Delivered over 4,500 school holiday activity places for children, including over 770 for children with special educational needs and disabilities
• 97% of Brent schools are good or outstanding
• Looked after 305 children in care
• Supported over 5,600 new people though our Family Wellbeing Centres

A Healthier Brent

• Provided vital social care support to 5,922 adults with care and support needs, including older people
• Our leisure centres welcomed 1,169,917 visits
• 2,049 free physical activity sessions
• 699 free oral health checks for children
• 626 projects to tackle health inequalities

The average Council Tax for 2026/27 is £42.99 per week, based on a band D property.

This is how each £1 will be spent on services residents rely on.

• 34p Adult Social Care
• 23p Children’s social care and early help
• 9p Housing and Neighbourhoods
• 6p Waste, recycling and the environment
• 4p Customer and community services and tackling poverty
• 1p Culture, leisure and parks
• 23p The Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and other Mayor of London services

This means the Council will spend the following amounts on each service:

• £182.8m on Adult Social Care
• £122.5m on Children’s social care and early help
• £50.8m on Housing and neighbourhoods
• £29.2m on Waste, recycling and the environment
• £17.4m on Customer and community services and tackling poverty
• £6.4m on Culture, leisure and parks

Each year, Brent Council sets council tax to help pay for important local services including education, libraries, rubbish and recycling, roads and social care.

The bill also includes a separate portion set by the Mayor of London which pays for the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and other Mayor of London services.

Calculating council tax

This year, Brent Council is increasing council tax by 4.99%. This includes 2% which goes towards the cost of caring for vulnerable adults in the borough. The Mayor of London is also increasing his portion by 4.1%. Overall, your total bill will increase by 4.8%.

What are the valuation bands?

The bands and charges for 2026-27 are shown below

How much Council Tax will you pay?

You can see what band your property is in and the amount of Council Tax you need to pay in My Account.

You can contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) if you have any enquiries about your Council Tax band or Business Rates valuation.

The following tables show the movement between Brent Council’s Council Tax Requirement* and Gross Expenditure** for 2025/26 and 2026/27.

*Calculated in accordance with Sections 31 to 36 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as amended

**Calculated in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 2 Part 2 of the Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2011 as amended

Council Tax requirement

Gross expenditure

The Secretary of State made an offer to adult social care authorities. (“Adult social care authorities” are local authorities which have functions under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, namely county councils in England, district councils for an area in England for which there is no county council, London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly).

The offer was the option of an adult social care authority being able to charge an additional “precept” on its council tax without holding a referendum, to assist the authority in meeting its expenditure on adult social care from the financial year 2016–17. It was originally made in respect of the financial years up to and including 2019–20. If the Secretary of State chooses to renew this offer in respect of a particular financial year, this is subject to the approval of the House of Commons.

The Mayor of London’s Budget for 2026-27 sets out how he will fund his plans to continue building a fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London for everyone. It ensures investment to tackle crime, build more affordable homes, reduce street homelessness, improve London’s transport network, provide free school meals to all state primary school children, and keep London as a world-leader in tackling air pollution and the climate crisis. The thread that runs throughout the budget is the Mayor’s desire to provide a helping hand to Londoners to ensure everyone has the chance to reach their potential.

In particular, the Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 prioritises resources to tackle crime and the causes of crime, with a record-breaking £1.26bn investment from City Hall in policing and crime prevention measures.

Increasing council tax to fund the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade

The GLA’s share of council tax for a typical Band D property has been increased by £20.13 – the equivalent of £1.68 a month. The additional income from this increase will help to fund the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) - whose work is overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) - and the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

The Mayor has taken the decision to increase the policing precept part of council tax to support the MPS in conducting a major crack down on phone theft, with targeted action to dismantle phone theft gangs on London’s streets. The additional funding will also be used to ensure London can build on the important progress being made to reduce homicides, knife crime, gun crime, burglary and other key crimes.

Investing to build a safer, fairer and greener London for everyone

• Record investment to tackle crime – The Mayor’s top priority is keeping Londoners safe and investment from City Hall has helped to deliver significant progress in reducing key crimes across London over recent years. However, there is still much more to do. That’s why the Mayor is investing a record-breaking £1.26bn from City Hall in policing and crime prevention measures in his 2026-27 budget. This is nearly £100m more than last year’s budget. The funding includes: £4.5m to continue to crack down on and dismantle phone theft gangs on the streets of the capital; a new £2.4m package of support for victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation; an additional £50m to invest in further support for young people, which will help to keep vulnerable young Londoners away from gangs and crime; and an additional £29m to continue tackling violence against women and girls in London.
• Improving London’s transport network – The Mayor is focused on increasing and improving transport services to make London’s transport network better, greener, more accessible and as affordable as possible. The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes investment that will help to: maintain existing concessionary travel and assisted door-to-door transport schemes; roll out new trains on the Piccadilly line; continue to improve accessibility across TfL’s network, increasing the availability of step-free access and toilets; improve the bus network; move forward with plans to deliver key transport projects, including the DLR extension to Thamesmead; and deliver schemes designed to make walking, cycling and public transport safer, cleaner and more appealing.
• Supporting Londoners through the cost-of-living crisis – The Mayor has responded to the cost-of-living challenges facing families in London by providing funding to continue his universal free school meals programme for London’s state primary school children. By July 2026, it is estimated that this programme will have saved London families up to £1,500 per child since its introduction in September 2023.
• Investing in social and affordable homes – Before the pandemic, the Mayor completed more homes in London than at any time since the 1930s and he has taken council housebuilding to its highest level since the 1970s. But there is still a long way to go to fix the housing crisis, with housebuilding currently facing an extremely challenging time in the capital. This is due to a combination of the impact of Brexit, the pandemic, high interest rates and delays caused by the Building Safety Regulator. The Mayor will continue to do everything he can, using his budget for 2026-27 to build more of the safe, decent and affordable homes Londoners need.
• Tackling rough sleeping – The Mayor has made addressing London’s rough sleeping crisis a top priority. Since 2016, he has increased City Hall’s rough sleeping budget more than fivefold and helped more than 20,000 people off London’s streets. The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes an additional £8m to invest in further action to tackle rough sleeping in the capital.
• Supporting Londoners through the AI revolution – The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 includes a new £20m pot of funding to take forward recommendations from his Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Future of Work Taskforce to embed AI skills in our workforce and equip Londoners with the tools they will need to succeed in a fast-changing environment.
• The Mayor’s budget for 2026-27 will also invest in: supporting Londoners to secure better paid jobs; tackling inequality; supporting renters; helping businesses, both large and small; and keeping London as a world-leader in reducing air pollution, cleaning up our rivers and tackling the climate crisis.

Summary of the GLA Group budget

The following tables compare the GLA Group’s planned spending for 2026-27 with last year and sets out why it has changed.

The GLA’s planned gross expenditure is higher this year. This reflects the additional resources the Mayor is investing in policing, the London Fire Brigade and transport services. Overall, the council tax requirement has also increased for this reason. There has been a 1.2 per cent increase in London’s residential property taxbase.

Find out more about our budget at: www.london.gov.uk/budget.