Where your council tax goes in Hammersmith & Fulham
A Band D home pays £1,519.51 this year, up 4.69%. Council tax covers about 23% of what the council spends on day-to-day services. Government grants pay for 66%, including the money passed straight to schools, and business rates for 8%.
Your bill
Pick your band. The council keeps 66% of it; the rest goes to the Mayor of London.
Your £1,009.00 to the council pays for
Split in proportion to the £255m the council pays for itself, after schools and public health, which have their own ring-fenced grants. Council tax pays about 36p of every £1 of that; government grants and business rates pay the rest.
The council’s budget
What the council spends on day-to-day services after fees and charges, and where the money comes from, including grants that can only be spent on schools or public health. It must balance by law.
Where the money comes from
What it pays for
How this year’s gap opened and closed
Costs rose by £6.4m and the council’s funding fell by £10.8m, leaving a £17.2m gap. The council closed it with more council tax and savings.
The £9.5m of savings, line by line
£5.8m of this year’s savings are one-off. They save nothing in 2027/28, so the same amount comes back as part of next year’s gap.
Service savings: £9.5m
| Saving | Service | This year | 2027/28 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stretch target: wider range of local services, one-off opportunities and preventative servicesone-off | Adult Social Care | £1.8m | £0.0m |
| Place redesign phase 3 | All Place Services | £1.3m | £1.3m |
| Transfer private sector leases to the council's housing company with higher charges | Housing Solutions | £1.1m | £1.1m |
| Redesign provision and transform practice to give residents more choice and control | Adult Social Care | £1.0m | £1.0m |
| Other commercial initiatives | Public Realm | £0.8m | £0.8m |
| Review fees and charges | All Place Services | £0.5m | £0.5m |
| Charge for payments by commercial card | Corporate | £0.5m | £0.5m |
| Reform the Local Support Payment scheme | Revenues and Benefits | £0.5m | £0.5m |
| Service efficiencies through closer integration and joint working | Children and Young Peoples Services | £0.4m | £0.4m |
| Review care costs with NHS Continuing Health Care criteria as people with very high needs leave hospital | Specialist Support and Independent Living | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Public health service efficiencies | Public Health | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Make better use of direct payments to give residents more choice and control | Independent Living, Quality, Performance and Safeguarding | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Targeted reduction in waste disposal costs | Public Realm | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| HBOP | Corporate | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Reprovide mental health services to match demand and reduce duplication | Specialist Support and Independent Living | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Raise council tax summons costs by £20 a summons | Revenues and Benefits | £0.2m | £0.2m |
| Service efficiencies in education and special educational needs | Education and Special Educational Needs | £0.1m | £0.1m |
| More income from property licences | Private Housing Standards | £0.1m | £0.1m |
| Service efficiencies across People's Commissioning | People's Commissioning | £0.06m | £0.06m |
| Commissioning and transformation efficiencies | People's Commissioning | £0.06m | £0.06m |
| Raise business rates summons costs by £20 a summons | Revenues and Benefits | £0.02m | £0.02m |
| Estates efficiencies from co-locating services | Specialist Support and Independent Living | £0.0m | £0.1m |
| Estates efficiencies from co-locating services | Specialist Support and Independent Living | £0.0m | £0.08m |
Collection fund savings: £8.4m
More council tax and business rates collected, and provisions released. These sit in the funding lines above, not in the savings line.
| Saving | Service | This year | 2027/28 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release £2m from the collection fund as council tax arrears keep fallingone-off | Council Tax | £2.0m | £0.0m |
| Release £2m of bad debt provision on business ratesone-off | Business Rates | £2.0m | £0.0m |
| More homes charged the second homes premium and a larger tax base | Council Tax | £1.7m | £1.7m |
| More business rates income from a larger base and full recovery (includes extra staff) | Business Rates | £1.7m | £1.7m |
| Raise council tax collection by 1%, 1.25% and 1.5% (includes extra staff) | Council Tax | £0.9m | £1.1m |
| End relief for residents' and tenants' associations and voluntary aided schools | Business Rates | £0.1m | £0.1m |
Balance next year’s budget
In the council’s own forecast, 2027/28 starts with a £31.4m gap, after the 4.99% council tax rise it already assumes. Every choice below changes that. Reserves close it once; the gap returns the year after.
Services and pledges
Coming once their cost is found in the council’s papers: Keep free home care for older residents, keep weekly rubbish collections, keep library opening hours.
Promises
Each party’s headline pledges from its 2026 manifesto, quoted word for word, with the cost to the council and a timeline that ends in delivery or in silence. All promises, and your ward’s councillors.
“Continue our pioneering policy of free adult home care for every resident in need, because when people need care they should face kindness, not anxiety about cost.”
Manifesto, 1 May 2026, page 3- Kept in the 2026/27 budget adopted by Full Council: the council says it is the only council in the country to provide free home care, helping 1,623 residents (budget report, PDF page 22) Source
- Re-pledged in the 2026 Labour manifesto
Your ward
Hammersmith & Fulham has 21 wards, each electing 2 or 3 councillors. Find yours to see who represents you, any pledges about your area and where to report street problems. Council tax is the same in every ward: only your band changes it. Or pick your ward on the map.
Payments over £500
The council publishes every payment over £500, a quarter at a time. The latest quarter here is April to June 2026. Search every payment since April 2015 on the payments page.
Paid the most, April to June 2026
| Organisation | Paid |
|---|---|
| Marsh Ltd | £4,480,943 |
| HIGGINS PARTNERSHIPS 1961 PLC | £4,285,318 |
| VEOLIA ES (UK) LIMITED | £3,966,107 |
| Wates Living Space Ltd | £3,425,208 |
| F.M Conway Ltd | £2,726,082 |
How this works
The rules a council lives by
- It must set a balanced budget every year.
- It can borrow only for buildings and other capital, not for running costs.
- A council tax rise of 5% or more needs a local referendum.
Every number is labelled
- sourced from a published document, linked below.
- approx from a secondary source or an assumption still to be checked.
- modelled worked out from sourced figures by a stated method.
- test invented to show the layout, underlined in red. Replaced by real data before launch.
Sources
44 published documents. Every figure links to the one it comes from.
Questions
Is this the council's website?
No. Borough Book is an independent project. It is not run by, endorsed by or affiliated with Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
Where do the numbers come from?
From the council's budget reports, the returns every council files with central government and the council's quarterly spend files. Every figure is marked sourced, approx or test, and each source is linked on this page.
Why does council tax pay for only part of the budget?
The council's day-to-day spending is also paid for by business rates it keeps, government grants and, in some years, a one-off draw on reserves. Council tax is the part residents pay directly.
Does the site store my band or my choices?
No. The bill calculator and the balance tool run in your browser. Your band, discount and choices are never sent anywhere, and reading the site never needs an account.
How do I correct a mistake or reply to a pledge card?
Email boroughs@guzh.uk. Any councillor or party named on a card can reply, and the reply is published on the card within five working days. Corrections need a source, and every change is made in the open: the code, the data tables and every card are on GitHub at https://github.com/xternal/borough-ledger.