How we spend your Council Tax

Your council knows that residents understandably want to know how their money is being spent locally.

We are committed to openness and providing clear and accessible information, and that includes letting you know how we invest the Council Tax that is contributed by local households to help pay for council services.

The council’s budget for 2025-26 was approved on 26 February 2025.

The agreement included a 6% rise in Council Tax, which was the lowest increase introduced by any council in Scotland this year.

It also means Council Tax rates in South Lanarkshire are now the lowest in Scotland.

South Lanarkshire is the fifth largest council in Scotland and following the budget agreement we will spend more than £1 billion in 2025-26 on general services on behalf of our residents. As in previous years, our biggest area of spend will be on providing education services.

Full details of how we deliver our services and invest in the local area can be found in our Council Tax financial information 2025-26 section.

However, to summarise, in a typical year we will spend our budget on:

teaching more than 24,863 primary pupils
teaching more than 20,698 secondary school pupils
providing 8,243 Early Learning and childcare places
caring for 3,177 older people and adults at home
looking after more than 1,818 older people in care homes
collecting waste every week from more than 159,000 households
maintaining 2,295km (1,426 miles) of roads

We also have a General Services Capital Programme for 2025-26 that will see the council invest £60.216 million on long-term investments in the area, including roads improvements and further upgrades to our excellent schools estate. A further £85.948 million has been approved for this year’s Housing Capital Programme.