COUNCIL TAX. Your money. Your community. Your life.

Your council tax helps to pay for hundreds of services that make the Falkirk Council area a better place to live, work and enjoy. 

Yes, it helps to pay to empty your bins and filling potholes, but it does so much more than that. 

Covering more than 700 services across the council, by paying your council tax you really are helping to make a difference to local lives and communities. From schools and nurseries, to care homes, parks and social care, there is no part of society that council tax does not help in some way. 

It all contributes towards fulfilling the Council’s vision to build… 

‘Strong communities where inequalities are reduced and lives are improved.’  

Supported by the following 3 priorities… 

·      Supporting stronger and healthier communities 

·      Promoting opportunities and educational attainment and reducing inequalities 

·      Supporting a thriving economy and green transition 

And everything that we do here at Falkirk Council strives to make the vision become a reality.   

Whilst the cost-of-living crisis is affecting how we operate as a society, we need to remember that our society is built on community and people.  

We all contribute in our own individual ways and for that, Falkirk Council thanks you. 

Take a look at how your council tax helps makes Falkirk better… 

Your money. Your community. Your life. 

Let’s take a look at how your council tax is spent across the services.

Projected £54.6m capital investment in 2023/24.

Help us make the right choices.

We provide a wide range of public services for the people in the Falkirk Council area.

Most of our revenue budget comes directly from the Scottish Government. This is around 77% of our total revenue budget of £427.7m and is wholly decided by the Scottish Government each year. Our revenue budget pays for the day to day running of all council services and your council tax makes up 18% of our total revenue budget. This helps us to run our everyday services as well as improve them for the future. 

Our services can be classed as statutory or discretionary, although there are some areas where discretionary services can help to deliver statutory requirements.  

By law, we must provide statutory services and these include, education, social services, most household waste collections, social housing, cemeteries, registrars and environmental health.  

Other services may be classed as discretionary – these are services that we provide but do not have to by law. Services such as culture, sport and leisure facilities, litter picking, grass cutting services and parks. 

Falkirk Council needs to make difficult decisions which could impact on all services. Savings will need to be made to try and fill the £60 million funding gap over the next 5 years.  

Money can be saved by removing services, reducing service provision and by changing the way we deliver them. There are no easy choices. 

We need your input. We need to know what you think.

We need your help. 

Please take this short survey and help us make the decisions that matter, together. 

If you would like to contact us directly via email, click here.

Join the conversation. We are listening.