Council Tax
Each year your council tax bill tells you what you pay for your local council’s services, as well as what you contribute to other important Greater Manchester-wide public services, such as the Police and Fire and Rescue Service.
These Greater Manchester contributions are called “precepts” and always appear on your bill. The Mayor of Greater Manchester is responsible for setting these precepts.
On the bill there will be two sections which refer to Mayoral precepts. One is for the policing precept, which used to be the responsibility of the Police and Crime Commissioner, in whose name this used to appear on your bill. On your bill, this will be called the "Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner Precept".
For 2025/26 the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner precept is £270.30 per year (for a Band D property) an increase of £14 per year.
The increase in precept funding is critical to sustain the significant improvements made in Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to continue to strengthen public safety and together with the central Government grant will deliver:
- Remain one of the best police forces in the country in the speed of answering 999 calls.
- Further improve 101 answering times.
- Further improve GMP response times with a focus on improving non-emergency times.
- Further reduce and prevent neighbourhood crimes, ASB and retail crime by investment in our prevention and neighbourhood policing teams.
- Improve road and transport safety by continuing with Operation Vulcan in Piccadilly and Victoria and expanding this out to key hotspot areas across the city region.
- In partnership with TfGM and others, launch a major programme across the Bee Network aimed at improving safety and people’s feeling of safety including the implementation of a dedicated Live Chat system.
- Divert more children away from crime by investing in liaison and diversion and preventative services.
- Bring more sex offenders to justice through investment in our sex offender management activity.
- Increase trust and confidence by investing in our Professional Standards Directorate.
- Deliver improved efficiency and productivity and demonstrate value for money in policing services through investment in technology which will use leading edge Artificial Intelligence software.
The other is called the "Mayoral General Precept". The vast majority of this comprises the costs of the Fire Service, with a small amount going to pay for other Mayoral functions.
For 2025/26 the Mayoral General precept (including Fire Services) is £128.95 per year (for a Band D property) an increase of £16 per year, or £85.97 (for a Band A property) an increase of £10.67. Of the £128.95 for a Band D property £86.20 relates to Fire and Rescue Services and £42.75 relates to Mayoral General functions.
The precept increase of £5 is for the GM Fire and Rescue Service and is required to ensure, given the significant increase in inflationary pressures on both pay and non-pay budgets, there is no adverse impact on frontline fire cover. In addition to funding the unavoidable impact of inflationary cost pressures, the increase will also allow additional investment in the service including an additional fire engine for GM and further investment in protection and prevention work. Together with the changes introduced through the 2023 Fire Cover Review (FCR) these changes will increase the number of fire engines across GM from 50 to 52 and allow significant investment in prevention and protection.
The Mayoral General precept increase of £11 for 2025/26 to support Mayoral priorities as set out below:
- Continuation of the A Bed Every Night (ABEN) programme, which over the last 5 years has contributed to a reduction in rough sleeping in Greater Manchester. Alongside other funding streams, this contribution is part of a three-year plan to enable greater investment in other areas of homelessness response and prevention.
- The Our Pass scheme which provides free bus travel within Greater Manchester for 16-18 year olds and direct access to other opportunities in the region.
- Care Leavers concessionary pass to providing a free bus travel in Greater Manchester for young people 18-25 years old that have been in care.
- Following the successful completion of the bus franchising programme, on budget and on time on 5th January 2025, and in line with the original and revised (post covid) business case the final precept contribution to the reformed bus service across GM will increase by £11 taking the total contribution to the service from the mayoral budget to £13.5m. This increase is slightly below the original funding proposals.
- The Bee Network has already delivered lower bus fares, new buses, higher standards, improved punctuality and greater customer satisfaction - and it will continue to improve and grow. Fully integrated 'pay as you go' Contactless capped fares will be rolled out across trams and buses from late March 2025 and eight commuter rail lines will be brought into the Bee Network by 2028.
- Equality panels facilitated by appropriate voluntary organisations, enabling investment in organisations which work in partnership with public services and the wider community, contributing to tackling the inequalities agenda.
GMCA 2024/25 budget information papers and livestream (external website)
Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner Precept (PDF, 441 KB)
Mayoral General Precept (including Fire Services) (PDF, 470 KB)
Transport
We’ve also given details of the costs of transport in Greater Manchester. This doesn’t appear on your bill as it is mostly funded through a levy contribution from the local districts, with a smaller proportion coming from the Mayoral precept.
Waste Levy
Municipal waste disposal is funded through a levy on nine of the Greater Manchester district councils, while Wigan operates as a unitary authority and administers its own disposal arrangements. The levy funds the operation of a network of waste management facilities. This doesn’t appear on your council tax bill.
All of these issues have been considered by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and a number of reports have been published:
Reports
The report links all take you to our external website meetings, agenda and minutes.