Most of the money that comes from Council Tax is spent on Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and Education - looking after older, vulnerable and disabled people, and supporting our children and young people. The cost of these services makes up about 60% of how we spend our net budget.
Every year, the council is legally required to set a balanced budget. This year (2026/27) we have set a total budget of around £1.566billion.
Some services, such as schools, council housing, planning and car parking receive specific income from grants or from charging fees direct to service users.
That income adds up to £1.102billion.
This gives us a budget of £464million to deliver our day-to-day services for the 342,000 people who live in Sandwell. This is called our “net budget”.
Where does our budget come from?
- 34% comes from Council Tax,
- 36% comes from Business Rates,
- and 30% comes from non-specific government grants.
What do we spend?
For every £100 of our £464million net budget we will spend:
- £32 on children’s services and education
- £31.50 on adult social care
- £7.50 on bins and recycling
- £5.50 on highways and environmental maintenance
- £3 on culture and leisure
- £3 on public transport
- £3 on planning and economic growth
- £2 on housing support
- £1.50 on public health and community safety
- and £11 on running the council and all of its services.
At a meeting in February, councillors approved a balanced budget for 2026/27 which includes:
- The installation of 62 new CCTV cameras to keep our neighbourhoods cleaner and safer – helping us to tackle fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.
- Launching 34 new pop-up recycling centres to help us all reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. New litter bins on our streets will also help keep our neighbourhoods clean.
- Doubling the funding for our anti-social behaviour team and investing in our wonderful parks and green spaces. We’re spending £1million on our play areas, building a new archives centre and making improvements to our cemeteries and crematoria.
- Building a new Causeway Green Primary School and a new Haden Hill Leisure Centre.
- Investing an extra £1.5million over the next financial year on maintaining our roads and pavements – building on Government recognition of our roads being among the best in the country.
- Investing a further £1million+ on road safety – prioritising the places where residents have raised community concerns about speeding, lighting, and other issues.