Council tax

Your council tax is administered and collected by the 12 borough and city councils.

Your council tax bill includes charges made by:

  • Lancashire County Council
  • Your borough / city council
  • Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire
  • Lancashire Combined Fire Authority
  • Parish / town councils (in some areas)

The county council's element of the council tax for each band in 2024/25 is detailed below:

Band A B C D E F G H
Property Value (£) Up to 40,000 40,001 - 52,000 52,001 - 68,000 68,001 - 88,000 88,001 - 120,000 120,001 - 160,000 160,001 - 320,000 320,001 and over
2023/24 Council tax (£) 1,049.81 1,224.77 1,399.74 1,574.71 1,924.65 2,274.58 2,624.52 3,149.42
2.99% Council tax increase (£) 31.38 36.63 41.86 47.09 57.55 68.03 78.47 94.18
2% Adult Social Care Precept (£) 21.00 24.49 27.99 31.49 38.49 45.48 52.49 62.98
2024/25 Council tax (£) 1,102.19 1,285.89 1,469.59 1,653.29 2,020.69 2,388.09 2,755.48 3,306.58
Weekly amount(£) 21.20 24.73 28.26 31.79 38.86 45.93 52.99 63.59

The county council receives your money to help fund the services we provide.

For questions about paying your bill or about benefits and reliefs please telephone your borough or city council.

Find out which borough or city council covers your area (external link to GOV.uk)

Adult Social Care Precept – Statutory Statement

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has previously 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.)

As part of the one year settlement for 2024/25 there is the option of an adult social care authority being able to charge an additional “precept” on its council tax for the financial year 2024/25 without holding a referendum, to assist the authority in meeting expenditure on adult social care.

Adult Social Care Precept – further information

The Adult Social Care (ASC) precept was introduced by the government in 2016/17 allowing those councils which provide social care to adults to increase their share of council tax.

Adult Social Care services support some of the most vulnerable members of our communities, largely supporting those in old age and adults with disabilities. Due to an ageing population demand on adult services has significantly increased pressure on the council's budget. The extra council tax income raised by the ASC precept therefore helps to reduce this financial pressure.

In 2024/25 the Government has allowed councils with adult social care responsibilities to increase their adult social care precept by a maximum of 2%.

The table below shows how much additional income is generated by the adult social care precept.

  2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
% Increase 2% 2% 3% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
Raising additional income £7.887m £8.353m £13.251m £4.750m £9.993m £10.390m £10.984m £11.626m £12.230m

The table below shows the total amount of ASC precept compared to the general council tax precept, for each property band, for county council services in 2024/25.

Band A B C D E F G H
General Precept (£) 941.16 1,098.03 1,254.89 1,411.75 1,725.47 2,039.20 2,352.91 2,823.50
Adult Social Care Precept (£) 161.03 187.86 214.70 241.54 295.22 348.89 402.57 483.08
Overall Council Tax (£) 1,102.19 1,285.89 1,469.59 1,653.29 2,020.69 2,388.09 2,755.48 3,306.58

The ASC precept figure above combines the amounts charged in 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and the increase for 2024/25.

Each property band's amount can be broken down as follows:

  ASC Precept Increase Band A
(£)
Band B
(£)
Band C
(£)
Band D
(£)
Band E
(£)
Band F
(£)
Band G
(£)
Band H
(£)
2016/17 2% 15.06 17.58 20.09 22.60 27.62 32.64 37.66 45.20
2017/18 2% 15.66 18.28 20.89 23.50 28.72 33.94 39.16 47.00
2018/19 3% 24.45 28.50 32.58 36.65 44.80 52.95 61.10 73.30
2019/20 1% 8.63 10.07 11.51 12.95 15.83 18.70 21.58 25.90
2020/21 2% 17.95 20.95 23.93 26.93 32.91 38.90 44.88 53.86
2021/22 2% 18.68 21.78 24.90 28.01 34.24 40.46 46.69 56.02
2022/23 2% 19.41 22.65 25.89 29.12 35.59 42.06 48.53 58.24
2023/24 2% 20.19 23.56 26.92 30.29 37.02 43.76 50.48 60.58
2024/25 2% 21.00 24.49 27.99 31.49 38.49 45.48 52.49 62.98
    161.03 187.86 214.70 241.54 295.22 348.89 402.57 483.08

Your Adult Social Care charges explained

For 2024/25 we have increased our overall council tax charge by 4.99%, 2% to fund Adult Social Care and 2.99% to fund General Expenditure.

To clarify, the Adult Social Care element has increased by 2% or £31.49 on the overall charge (for a Band D property).

This is calculated as follows:

£31.49 (the amount of Adult Social Care increase) divided by £1,574.71 (last year’s overall Band D charge) multiplied by 100 (to give a percentage figure).

  2023/24 Charge (£) 2024/25 Charge (£) Amount increase (£) Overall % increase
General Expenditure 1,364.66 1,411.75 47.09 2.99%
Adult Social Care 210.05 241.54 31.49 2.00%
Overall Charge 1,574.71 1,653.29 78.58 4.99%

View a further breakdown of how your council tax bill is calculated (PDF 92 KB)

When you receive your council tax bill you will notice the following sentence:

'The council tax attributable to Lancashire County Council includes a precept to fund adult social care.'

This is a statutory sentence prescribed by Government legislation and refers to the separate line on your bill relating to the Lancashire County Council Adult Social Care precept. The other line relating to Lancashire County Council does not include the Adult Social Care precept; they are two distinct charges.

Please note:

The government has said that the ASC precept must be shown as a separate charge on all council tax bills. The way that we work out this increase and show it on our council tax bills is prescribed by The Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

By law any increases on your council tax bill must be shown to the nearest decimal point – which means that the 2.99% general expenditure increase must be shown as 3%.